The defunct Rupununi River Bridge at Katoonarib will benefit from a $26 million upgrade – a sum that represents 162% of the cost to build it—almost four years after a section of the structure caved-in under the weight of an excavator.
“The contract is intended to take care of design upgrade in building so we don’t have a recurrence of what happened [in 2008],” Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, told Stabroek News. Lethem construction company, Dalip Enterprises has won the $26 million contract for the work, Benn said. In 2008, then chairman of Region Nine, Clarindo Lucas, had told Stabroek News that the wood and concrete structure cost $16 million to build.
The bridge was newly built when a section collapsed under the weight of an excavator that was heading to a gold mining operation in the South Rupununi in May 2008. Repairs were promised and during a visit to the bridge this week, it was observed that parts of the structure are slowly crumbling. The approach to the bridge has also been washed away and more recently, the planks are being removed.
“They cannibalizing it,” said a resident. Planks are being removed and according to residents, it is being done by a contractor building another bridge in the South Rupununi. “He is cannibalizing it,” the resident said.
Benn told Stabroek News that Dalip Enterprises was working on roads north of the bridge and has now reached the structure and will begin work with the aim of completing it within the next four to five months before the rainy season in the Rupununi starts. He said that some design changes had to be made and this is covered in the contract. He said that inclusive of this is the careful removal of planks from any part that is damaged.
Benn said that the section collapsed in 2008 because the steel at the beams “didn’t overlap each other properly.” An engineer at the ministry said that the structure was tested and it was found that the concrete columns that support the bridge are fairly strong but they are trying to strengthen the beams.
During a visit to the area this week, several residents again expressed concern to this newspaper that the authorities seem to be doing nothing to fix the bridge. The Rupununi River Bridge is one of two crucial bridges that have collapsed under the weight of equipment traversing over them. The other one, at Konarwau, collapsed last year under the weight of a truck transporting concrete culverts for a contractor upgrading roads in the area. The Works Ministry engineer said he did not know of this bridge and suggested that the regional administration had responsibility for this bridge.
The bridges link the administrative centre of Region Nine, Lethem, to the villages of the Deep South Rupununi. Currently, in the dry season, vehicles drive on the river bed but residents said that during the rainy season this is not possible and it becomes very hard because the price for goods rises. “It affect the local businesses. And the people who do travelling, it costs more for us,” one woman said.
Residents called for the bridges to be renovated. It was pointed out that currently the road and some bridges are being upgraded but attention should be paid as well to the two crucial bridges since without them, during the rainy season, vehicles would be unable to cross over to get to the other side of the road. “It would be hard on us,” one woman said. Another resident pointed out too that during the rainy season when the river overflows its banks, on the southern side of the bridge at Katoonarib, there would be a long stretch of water while on the northern side, there would be a strong running stream so access to the bridge to cross over is hampered.
