Govt. Approves $17M to begin works on damaged Supenaam Stelling

Sep 16, 2016 News

The damaged Supenaam stelling is expected to benefit from repairs in the nearest of time as the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has secured $17M to begin repairs on the structure.

Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson

This is according to Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure Annette Ferguson, yesterday.
She said, “In the nearest of time, works will commence and this will be done by the Demerara Harbour Bridge.”
Ferguson said that the Ministry has approved some $17M to have a number of rectifications done to the stelling. These include, driving cluster piles, replacing transom and metal plates among other things.
The Junior Minister said that work on the stelling is expected to last seven days. Personnel from the Demerara Harbour Bridge would be undertaking the project since they would have already done some amount of works to the link span bridge of the stelling.
In a recent interview with Ferguson, this publication was informed that repairs would begin before the end of September. At that time, an assessment of damages was done and the Ministry was awaiting quotations from persons to undertake the project.
That assessment was done some time in August when it was revealed that the structure is plagued with several structural problems since the MV Sabanto would have collided with the stelling.
The Ministry had reported that defective timber piles, badly damaged beams and steel plates would be replaced.
General Manager of Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD), Marcelene Merchant, had reported that the link span steel access bridge and steel pontoon sustained heavy structural damage.

A damaged section of the Stelling.

Additionally, several defective vertical and diagonal steel ties and braces are to be removed and replaced while the link span bridge will be realigned into position. Moreover, the steel plate decking, structural framing and support mechanism for the pontoon were damaged.
According to Merchant there are 10 defective timber piles in the existing defective clusters that need to be cut off at the lowest tide. To replace them, 10 new piles will be re-driven and strapped.
A portion of the concrete decking of the stelling has also been critically damaged due to the heavy impact. The catwalk to the stelling was also damaged and is to be reconstructed and reinstalled. It is estimated that all repairs would cost $20M.
On the night of July 26, last, the M.V Sabanto crashed into the Good Hope/Supenaam stelling while docking. The boat had to be docked. Passengers and vehicles had to resort to using the area where the ramp is constructed to board and disembark from the boat.
Plying the Supenaam/Parika route now are the M.V Torani and the M.V Malali.
Based on information given by Captain C. Francis of the Sabanto, the boat was approaching a creek not too far from the Stelling; he then instructed the other person who was with him captaining the vessel at the time to “slow down” both of the engines.
Francis said that whenever the tide is low, the boat usually comes to a sudden halt on nearing the Supenaam area but the problem does not exist for a long period. He noted that he was not captaining the boat at the time. It is unclear how the boat accelerated and crashed into the stelling.

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