Another Rupununi bridge caved-in under the weight of a truck last month, limiting travel to and from several Deep South Rupununi communities and access to essential supplies as rains flood the area.
The bridge was crucial as vehicles from the remote area used that road to get to the Region Nine administrative centre at Lethem, following the collapse of the Rupununi River bridge – a section of which caved in under the weight of an excavator in 2008. Deep South Rupununi is currently experiencing flooding from heavy rains and residents worry that food prices, which normally rise during the rainy season as travel is made even more difficult, will climb even further.
When contacted, Region Nine Chairman Clarindo Lucas said that the bridge will be repaired. “Anything that happen, we will do repairs,” he said. He could not say how long it would be before the repairs start but acknowledged that it could take a while.
He pointed out that funds have to be found. Traffic continues to come in from the South Rupununi, Lucas said. “As to the time of repairs, I don’t have that information but I can guarantee the nation repairs will be done sooner rather than later,” he added.
Residents said that just before Easter, a section of the bridge collapsed under the weight of a truck loaded with concrete culverts. The bridge has a weight limit of 10 tonnes. “When the water high, people have to wait there until the water goes down,” a teacher who travelled the trail recently told Stabroek News. “You have to wait there sometimes for days,” the teacher said, adding, “when the rain fall sometimes you can’t cross at all.” The administration has been upgrading the trail to the South Rupununi but several times in the past, residents decried the poor quality work being done.
The wood and concrete bridge was built several years ago, this newspaper was told. Previously, a section of it was damaged by fire rendering it unusable but residents repaired it.
The collapsed section is not where the repairs were done. Following the collapse of the Rupununi River bridge in 2008, this trail saw increased traffic and residents said it was crucial given the state of the other trail in the rainy season where vehicles are stalled for long time waiting to ford the Rupununi River at Dadanawa.
The ‘back road’ trail links the villages of Karaudarnau, Achwib and Aishalton to Lethem.
Meantime, residents also expressed their dissatisfaction with aspects of road work done that they said reflected poor planning. Stabroek News was told that at one area, rather than repairing a bridge that had washed away, the authorities opted to build two bridges, less than a mile apart, on the same creek. They opined that money could have been better spent repairing the washed-away bridge.
Another bridge had failed in the Rupununi recently. On Good Friday, traffic along the Lethem trail halted after parts of a bridge located a few miles south of Karasabai collapsed under the weight of a truck. Reports are that shortly after 2 pm that day, the truck which was transporting goods was crossing the bridge when parts of the infrastructure fell in. Temporary repairs have since been done and traffic is flowing, Lucas said.
In the South Rupununi, in 2008, a section of the newly-built Rupununi River bridge collapsed under the weight of an excavator which was heading to mining fields in the South Rupununi. Repairs have not yet been done.
