Chateau Margot bridge still to be completed

Dec 30, 2022 News

…commuters raise concerns ahead of school reopening

Kaieteur News – The $35 million Chateau Margot bridge on the Railway Embankment is still to be completed over a month since works started.

With the bridge out of commission creating major traffic jam on the East Coast Demerara especially during the morning hours.

With school scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, residents on the East Coast Demerara are desperately hoping that the bridge would be ready. “It is a struggle in the mornings when you have to divert from the embankment to the main road in the morning and now with school reopening, it would be chaos. I hope the bridge would be completed in time for this,” Shonette James told this newspaper in an invited comment. Another resident, Troy Douglas of Victoria Village said he too was hoping that the bridge would be ready before the reopening of school. “It would be chaos with all the traffic and the schoolchildren back out.”

Ongoing works on the Chateau Margot bridge

According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) press release, works are progressing well on the bridge with a possible completion date of December 30, 2022. This is according to the Ministry of Public Works. The project, which began in early November, is part of a wider programme by the ministry to replace aqua-panel bridges with pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete structures, for strong and durable infrastructure countrywide.

Earlier this month, over $5B in contracts was signed to continue infrastructural works to advance the modernisation and sustainable development of the country’s infrastructure. At the contract signing, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill said the continuous rehabilitation works represent the government’s commitment to improve lives and foster resilient and durable infrastructure for the future. “We are advancing, and putting in what is called resilient infrastructure, as it relates to our bridges. We have to take out the timber bridges that we traditionally use and be able to replace them with things that will last us 20, 40 years,” he said. Of the mammoth $96.1 billion budget allocation, $76.7 billion was allocated to improve roads and bridges countrywide. Some $173.9 million was budgeted for the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of bridges in Garden of Eden, Chateau Margot, Beterverwagting, and Cemetery Road.