A section of the drawbridge at the recently opened Good Hope/Supenaam stelling on the Essequibo Coast collapsed under the weight of a vehicle, triggering traffic congestion in the area late yesterday afternoon.
Reports out of the area are that some time around 5 pm yesterday, the MB Sandaka was being loaded when the hinges connecting the drawbridge to the barge broke off. A heavy duty vehicle was reportedly being loaded onto the barge when the incident occurred.
Transport Minister Robeson Benn told this newspaper last evening that “nothing at the stelling broke off”. He said that because there was a high tide at the time, the support to the barge “bounced out” and, according to him, the piece of infrastructure was expected to be fixed today. He stated too that the authorities will be making a complete change of the barge with a different design.
A speedboat operator said last evening that following the incident, lines of vehicles leading to the stelling drew to a crawl and traffic was later rerouted to the Adventure ferry stelling further up the Essequibo Coast. He said that the MV Torani, which had been plying the Essequibo River routes of the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) since the MV Malali was sent to the dockyard, was rerouted to Adventure. The vessel was heading to Good Hope from the Wakenaam stelling at the time of the incident.
Persons at the scene said that earlier yesterday, there had been reports that the structure appeared unable to endure the weight of vehicles, mainly trucks, which have been using the stelling since it was reopened several weeks ago.
A resident at Good Hope said there had been complaints from users of the structure that it was “unsafe”, while persons expressed disgust at the weight requirement which was put in place since the infrastructure was reopened mid last month. The weight for vehicles using the facility was reduced from 22 tonnes to less than 16 tonnes as the maximum.
Last month, the Ministry of Public Works and Communi-cation stated that it had conducted a successful trial run of the stelling.
A Government Information Agency (GINA) release reported the ministry as saying that an attempted trial run on March 17 by the MV Torani was aborted after the vessel arrived at the stelling during an abnormally high tide and rather than waiting for the water to recede, a practice which it said was not uncommon at other stellings, it was decided to divert the ferry to the Adventure stelling.
“The practice run lasted for approximately 40 minutes and saw the offloading of 18 vehicles that were predominantly trucks, most of which were in the 10-15 tonne range. There are some remaining minor issues that are being address-ed at the facility,” the release said.
The ministry noted in the release that when it took over the structure it was already built, and it was not involved in the design phase or the construction of the facility. However, the agency noted that repair works were undertaken recently with the intention of strengthening the facility to make it operable.
Works commenced on the facility in February this year, to make the $431 million stelling operational and the administration noted late last year that the cost to do this might be in the vicinity of $50 million.
This newspaper was told that the repair works were undertaken even as a recent report, submitted by two engineers who were selected by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to review the works undertaken at the stelling last year, was not fully examined.
Stabroek News has made numerous attempts over the past several months to obtain information from the Office of the Prime Minister on the findings of the report submitted by engineers Bert Carter and Marcel Gaskin in mid-2010.
The report contains information on the faults identified with the design work carried out by several relevant stakeholders, including Canadian company SNC Lavalin, which designed the stelling, construction company BK Inter-national and the ministries of Local Government and Public Works, prior to the unveiling of the berth. The team also made recommendations which were expected to be utilised in correcting the flaws at the stelling and in anticipation of two roll-on, roll-off vessels which the administration announced during the last quarter of last year were being sourced from China. The vessels are expected to be completed before the end of this year and will ply the Essequibo River routes served by the T&HD.
A source said additional works to the stelling may be required when the new vessels being sourced from China arrive.
Stabroek News was told that the report was expected to have been used as a yardstick for the undertaking of repair works, which concentrate on the ramp that buckled in April last year when the completed stelling was unveiled.
BK International and the Public Works Ministry had blamed each other for the problems with the stelling, following the collapse of the end beam of its loading ramp. The ministry had denied that it was to be blamed for the state of the stelling and said it was the T&HD that took over a facility “which was inadequate to handle the typical flotation as well as the arrangement to get onto the vessel for the heavy truck traffic from the Essequibo.”
Benn stated then that the Ministry of Local Govern-ment supervised the construction of the ferry stelling and later issued a certificate of completion to BK Inter-national even though the completed project had obvious defects.
The ferry stelling was built to the tune of $431 million of contract approved funds. An additional $17.2 million was spent by the Ministry of Public Works in modification works, Benn had said. The modifications included a drawbridge and a pontoon, both of which Benn said were “absolutely necessary” because the ministry took over the stelling “with great concerns”.
