Following a malfunction of the Berbice Bridge on Friday evening which left countless persons stranded, a temporary fix is in place with a full recovery expected within a few days.
This is according to Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn who further said that the malfunction was caused by a defective retractor span.
He further explained that he been informed of the issue some time after 6 pm and a subsequent fix was finished by 10 pm.
“It appears as if some of the programmable logics controller on one of the units that close the bridge – I think on the eastern side – developed a defect,” Benn said. He went on, “The bridge could not close after the river vessels passed through.”
According to the minister, officials of the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI) wrestled with the defective part for a number of hours before technicians from the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) were called in to help. This help arrived at about 8.30 pm, he said.
“They got off the one that was good, which took some time to take off. Having closed that section, they moved it over to the other side, put it in place and closed it,” Benn explained before adding, “That is only a temporary fix…right now it cannot open for river traffic but it is okay for vehicular traffic.”
The fault, he said, is being worked on assiduously.
Benn further said that officials of BBCI were in contact with the builders of the bridge, Bosch Rexroth and Mabey & Johnson, and are working on acquiring the defective parts. He expected that the problem should be fixed “in a couple of days.”
On Friday, the Berbice Bridge had been scheduled to open from 3.35 pm until 5.05 pm to allow the passage of sea-faring vessels. However, the scheduled reclosing time passed while the bridge remained opened.
Both banks of the Berbice River were soon swamped with vehicles and the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) mobilised its passenger barge the Bonasika to assist in moving commuters between New Amsterdam and Rosignol, the Public Works Ministry said.
According to Benn, the ministry had anticipated that other vessels, including one from Essequibo, would have had to be mobilized to transport more persons but this idea was squashed with the temporary fix.
