Unable to undertake critical maintenance work during the day, the management of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Company is piloting a new system by executing much needed works on the harbour bridge at nights, General Manager Wayne Watson said.
Watson in a telephone interview yesterday with Stabroek News explained that from 10 pm to 6 am daily they will be closing off one lane of traffic to commuters to facilitate the maintenance works.
He explained that the works will be carried out on the decking plates supporting structures and other parts of the bridge that require works.
While noting that they are working as swiftly as they can to minimise delays on the 44-year old bridge, he is pleading with commuters to proceed with caution at nights and follow the necessary instructions to guide them while traversing the bridge.
Watson emphasised that the works on the bridge are much needed and if it is going to see continued use over the next few years, it is integral that maintenance works be undertaken.
On this note, he asked that commuters understand the situation and make regular checks of their Facebook page to be updated on any changes.
He noted that in some instances they have been trying to merge bridge closures with scheduled maintenance at nights. This, Watson said, minimises the impact on traffic during the course of the day. However, he explained that in some cases they are required to close the bridge to vehicular traffic since some vessels or tugs and barges cannot cross in the night.
Watson further informed that on Friday they will be closing the bridge for four hours to replace a transom beam, work that has been put off for some time. He disclosed that the replacement was scheduled since last year and had been postponed to avoid posing an inconvenience to traffic.
The works on the bridge should be completed by four on Saturday morning and will reopen to vehicular traffic right after.
At the start of this year, Watson said that several hours-long closures of the Demerara Harbour Bridge were scheduled as major rehabilitation of spans nine and ten are due to resume. The repairs totalling $1.2 billion are expected to be done in intervals.
“It was scheduled to finish in December 2021, but because of consideration for users, we are now projecting somewhere (in) April. In order to replace span nine, the rehabilitation work of both span nine and 10 must be completed which will require some closure of the bridge. The total closure to do the rehabilitation is 16, six-hour closures, to date we have only done five,” he had explained back in January.
