A main bridge leading into the Eastville Housing Scheme at Annandale, East Coast Demerara yesterday morning collapsed under the weight of a heavy-duty truck transporting sand to build the access road into the neighbourhood.
The truck, which belongs to H. Nauth and Sons contractors, was transporting sand to construct the main road into the community when the bridge caved in. The truck, up to late last night, was still hanging from the bridge. A shaky foot bridge was set up adjacent to the collapsed one around 8 pm for residents to cross over.
However, most residents had to park their vehicles on the Annandale Public Road because there was no way to get into the community.
One resident stated that the bridge, which was said to be in good condition, caved in around 10am yesterday. The resident noted that the truck had to have been overloaded to cause the mishap.
Public Works Minister Robeson Benn visited the
community yesterday with a group of engineers and promised to have another bridge constructed quickly.
The residents noted that the minister stated that it was the responsibility of the contractors to provide security for the vehicles since they were the ones that damaged the bridge.
- Nauth and Sons have engaged a security guard to watch over the vehicles parked on the roadway. The residents were told to write their names, address and telephone numbers down on a paper with their vehicle number. However, some residents were not so trusting and chose to park their vehicles elsewhere.
“I don’t feel too safe with my car out there. I just took my documents out of my car and hoping that I will find it in good shape tomorrow morning,” one resident said.
Daniel Abrams, another resident, said that he considered the collapse of the bridge a great inconvenience because he has to be at work as early as 6am and was forced to park his vehicle miles away from the community.
“I parked my vehicle at Friendship front and tomorrow I would have to get a taxi to pick up the vehicle to get to work,” he said.
Abrams stated that he refused to park on the road side because he felt that it was “an opportunity that people take advantage of” and that he could not trust the security guard.
“I don’t know him and I ain’t taking any changes,” he said, adding that he recognized that the construction was for developing a new road and the collapse of the bridge was an accident.
‘It is affecting almost everyone in this community because we have to park our vehicles in places we don’t know. We ga pay for people to look at the vehicle and I live almost a mile in the scheme,” Joycelyn Squires said. “It poses a danger to villagers in the area…if the vehicles getting break inside the scheme, what gon happen when it out there now?” she asked.
Some residents expressed fear over the soundness of the foot bridge.
