The Demerara Harbour Bridge is expected to reopen to light traffic today, General Manager Rawlston Adams announced yesterday, a day after a section of the structure sank.
But with travel between Region Three and the capital city and other parts of Region Four affected by the temporary closure of the bridge, interim arrangements were made to complement the besieged speedboat services in order to get some pedestrians across yesterday. “We are expecting this afternoon (yesterday) to facilitate some pedestrian traffic over the bridge. We are going to have some arrangements where minibuses can come up to the high span and passengers can disembark and they can trek to the other end and get to their respective places,” Adams told a press conference.
Up to yesterday afternoon, commuters continued to flock the stellings on both ends of the river. On Monday morning, a small section of the bridge sank, after the jaws of one of the piers supporting two temporary pontoons at the bridge broke. Adams said yesterday that the Demerara Harbour Bridge Company’s work crew was able to lift the section of the bridge that collapsed sometime around 3am yesterday, but further works were restricted because of the tide.
“We were able to raise the bridge and back out the water (from the pontoon) and we are re-installing the original pontoon, and we are using a pontoon from Eddie Vieira that is being used as temporary support so that we can be able to install the main pontoon” he explained.
“These work are tide-sensitive and right now we don’t have the tide so we are waiting on the tide to complete the installation of the pontoon and that is expected to be tonight and we are expecting for tomorrow for light vehicular traffic to use the bridge,” he added.
When questioned about the durability of the temporary pontoons that collapsed, Adams stated that they were being used “all the time” and if they had faults there was no way they would have used them “to endanger the integrity of the bridge.”
He continued yesterday to avoid the issue of the cost of the repairs, saying that management had not put a price tag to them, while emphasising that they were working feverishly to have the bridge repaired as soon as possible. “What I want to say is that the resource that is used to repair is our internal resources. That is more man hours, equipment, and gas,” he stated.
Although Chinese engineers were seen inspecting the bridge last Friday, a senior engineer told Stabroek News they were not a part of the engineering team undertaking rehabilitation works and that they were there for their own purposes.
When questioned about the presence of the Chinese engineers, Adams emphasised that the only personnel working on the bridge were the company’s workmen and that Chinese officials were only visiting.
Rush
With the closure of the bridge, speedboat operators were allowed to ply the river 24 hours a day but morning and afternoon rush hours saw crowds at the facilities. There were several fights despite the police presence. Once commuters managed to travel to the West Demerara, they also had to contend with getting transportation from the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling, since there was a shortage of vehicles. Several persons were left with no other option but to walk to their respective destinations. When this newspaper visited the car park late Monday night, there were several persons still stranded there waiting on transportation to get home.
Since the bridge remained closed yesterday, commuters encountered the same difficulties. Vehicles were allowed to offload passengers at the Vreed-en-Hoop junction and the commuters had to trek the rest of the route to get to the Vreed-en-Hoop Stelling. And at the Georgetown end in the afternoon, there was chaos as commuters rushed for boats to take them across the river.
There continued to be a heightened police presence at the city stelling and officers acted on previous threats to close the gates in an attempt to maintain order. However passengers, especially women, were shrieking as they were violently pushed by the crowd against the steel gates of the stelling. Many were in tears with bruises by the time they got through the gates. Again, some travellers were left stranded, since many of the fuel stations on the West Bank and the West Coast of Demerara had no fuel to supply the vehicles.
As a result of the situation, some travellers called for the re-introduction of the ferry service, while noting that there was enough time to ensure that better mechanisms were in place to maximise order.
Bibi Sharima Ali told Stabroek News that it took her approximately 45 minutes before she got into the stelling to get a boat. She said she was pushed and tugged until her skin hurt. Another commuter, Michel Seesankar, expressed the same sentiments as well as the call for the re-introduction of the ferry service for the route.
However, some admitted that given the present state of the stellings, even if the government wanted to restart the ferry service, there would be difficulty. However, some were optimistic, suggesting that after the bridge has reopened, the government should start de-silting both sides of the river near the stellings and make preparations for the re-introduction of the ferry service. However, the speedboat operators were dreading such a move, which they said would put them out of work.
Amid the problems commuters also noted that the government has two large Chinese ferries idling and unable to function in any river at the moment.
