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Traffic on Demerara Harbour Bridge almost back to normal
– damages from collision being assessed
– realignment to be done today
The tug and barge that hit the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
Kaieteur News – Emergency crews were hard at it yesterday to repair the damage to the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
The works followed a collision involving a tug and barge. The barge reportedly rammed into the high span of the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
The situation would have worried thousands of commuters who depend on the structure to take them to and from West Demerara and further to and from Essequibo.
According to the harbour bridge, the situation is near to normalcy as it has also resumed transiting vehicles of up to 12 tonnes and has re-opened to marine traffic under the high span.
It is reported that around 17:30 hrs. on Wednesday, a tug and barge (Rediston and Surtrans) owned by Deonarine Sookram of D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, collided with the southern section of the high span.
At the time of the accident, the barge was transporting bauxite to John Fernandes Wharf in Georgetown, and was captained by Dale Andrews Green.
As a result of the hit, the smooth flow of vehicular traffic was disrupted for persons seeking to cross the bridge, and those travelling along the East and West Banks of Demerara. About an hour after the hit, the bridge was re-opened for small vehicles and mini-buses only.
Yesterday, an emergency meeting was held at the DHBC boardroom. Present at the meeting were Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill; the Chairman of the DHBC, Ravie Ramcharitar; Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn; the General Manager, Rawlston Adams and a technical team.
According to a statement from the management of the bridge, the engineering team yesterday met with the owner of the tug and barge that damaged the bridge.
During the discussions, the maintenance team identified the damage to the sub and super structure.
Additionally, the maintenance team reconnected seven anchor chains and replaced one buoy.
The equipment and spare machinery were also put in place and remedial works to the anchorage system of the bridge commenced without obstruction to vehicular traffic yesterday afternoon, the harbour bridge statement said.
The technical team is in the process of calculating the damages and the bridge alignment will be done today, it was disclosed.
Just last year, a tug and barge had slammed into the bridge and the owner was ordered to pay $100M to the Government to repair the damaged structure.
That incident happened on September 2, 2019. On that occasion, a tug, Marina Oceanic, and a barge, manned by Cubans and registered in Panama, crashed into the Demerara Harbour Bridge, badly damaging the 40-year-old structure and leaving hundreds of commuters stranded for several hours.
That resulted in the bridge remaining inoperable for almost 36 hours.
Kaieteur News had reported that under the laws, the cost for fixing such damage to the bridge must be covered by the offending parties.
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