An overladen truck on Saturday night destroyed a section of the Pirara Bridge in the Rupununi and emergency repairs of $25m are planned, according to Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill.
The Minister also announced yesterday that government was already mapping out a plan for the replacement of timber bridges with concrete structures throughout the hinterland.
“We have to do emergency works that could cost us about $20 to $25M to give access and that sum has been approved with works to begin swiftly after the truck is removed,” Edghill told Stabroek News.
“The truck is on the bridge and while we do not have a scale to weigh [it], you can see the load of the truck is too much. I have to make this appeal, again, to all operators, owners of trucks, container trucks…we have to stay within the weight limit. We also have started, before this collapse, a plan for concrete replacements for bridges in the hinterland,” he added.
On Saturday night, a 50-foot section on the southern end of the Pirara Bridge in the Rupununi collapsed, as a truck heading from Lethem was crossing which resulted in the backing up of traffic on both ends. No injury was reported.
Up to last evening, Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) Private Sector Executive Daniel Gajie said that there was a collaborative effort between government and the private sector to have the truck with items moved and the damaged area replaced with temporary planks to allow for light crossing.
But he lamented that “at the moment, there are several bridges that require critical attention and sections of the road have already begun to deteriorate.”
The Public Works Minister said that engineers were immediately dispatched to the area and have submitted estimates for repairs to the bridge and that the ministry has approved those.
In May of 2018, this newspaper had reported when Chairman of Region Nine, Bryan Allicock appealed to have major works done on the Pirara Bridge, which he had said was in a deplorable condition.
He had said that the bridge posed a risk to all persons who traverse it regularly. “It has been like that for quite some time now and it was strengthened a while ago. All that was done is the running boards were changed and repaired but no major work has been done since then and everything is falling to pieces. All they do is paint over the bridge and put some lights, and most of them already destroyed,” Allicock had said.
He had emphasized that despite many calls being made to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, no major work had been done on the bridge and most of the residents were scared to cross the bridge.
“The minibuses are okay but the heavy-duty vehicles that are bringing ten and twenty tonnes of cargo is a concern. It’s a risk they are taking. We are telling them constantly but no one is taking the heed. Maybe they are waiting for someone to probably die before they address it,” Allicock added, while stating that there were other bridges in the Region that were in dire need of repairs.
In November of 2019 a part of the bridge was damaged and repairs completed in December of that year but calls have been consistent for concrete structures instead as many were not confident with the timber repairs.
Sustainability
Edghill yesterday said that upon taking office, President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had emphasized long-term sustainability of infrastructural projects and requested that an analysis of all timber-built hinterland bridges so that they could be replaced with concrete structures.
He said that the collapse of the Pirara Bridge came at a time when engineers were examining bridges between Kurupukari and Lethem to submit those dimensions and possible costing of concrete replacements.
“We intend to go out on a project to replace those with concrete”, he said while he highlighted additional benefits of concrete structures, which will include designated partitions for pedestrians and cyclists.
While the Pirara Bridge will be rebuilt with timber, when the concrete replacement project kicks in, users of that thoroughfare will see the change.
“Once we roll out the concrete road bridges project, this bridge will be a part of that and a concrete bridge resembling the one at Manari will be built,” he said.
The Minister also called on his predecessor David Patterson to explain what happened to the mobile scales that were purchased for bridges throughout the country.
“They are mobile scales to move around and check. We will have to do more monitoring and need those. We have spent tens of millions of taxpayers’ money to buy mobile scales and yet today we are not in possession of one scale. Why?” he questioned.
“Someone should visit Mr. Patterson and ask why those scales are not with the ministry so that we can use it on bridges like these. Tens of millions spent and we are not in possession of one scale. This issue is the subject of a forensic audit and I believe that when that is [completed] there should be charges. No procurement process was followed in the purchase, one hundred percent monies were transferred to the company and today the company cannot be located,” he contended.
Edghill said that when the concrete bridges are built more monitoring will go into ensuring that weight limits are also kept for those.
Nonetheless, he is pleading with the public to ensure that heavy-duty vehicles are not laden for crossing. “We all have to ensure that they don’t overload the vehicles and cross with weight over the maximum,” he said.
