President checks on situation at Harbour Bridge

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Former Member

President checks on situation at Harbour Bridge

Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2012 -- Source - GINA

As engineers work feverishly to fix the partly submerged section of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, President Donald Ramotar this evening visited the scene. He was accompanied by Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.

President Donald Ramotar and Ministers Robeson and Ashni Singh being briefed by General Manager, Rawlston Adams on the current status of the submerged section of the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

The Head of State was brought up to speed as it relates to the cause of the collapse as well as the status of the works being done by General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Rawlston Adams.

At 6:45hrs this morning, one of the temporary pontoons sank resulting in the subsequent spans being submerged.

A crew has since been dispatched and is working around the clock and the tide to get the bridge up and running. They are hoping that the repairs will be finished by tomorrow evening so that commuters, who are very much displaced at the moment, can be able to use it.

The submerged section of the Demerara Harbour Bridge

In an effort to ease the congestion at the Stabroek stelling, Minister Benn has asked engineers to explore the possibility of making a temporary walkway over the submerged section for pedestrian commuters. This will allow vehicles to offload passengers on the bridge itself; who will then proceed over the walkway to the other side.

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Former Member

Emergency teams working to restore Harbour Bridge- GM

Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2012 -- Source - GINA

General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Rawlston Adams, this morning at a press briefing held in the boardroom of the Corporation, informed media operatives that emergency teams were deployed to the bridge and will be working around the clock to have the structure restored.

“At 6:45hrs this morning we noticed that the span between 60 and 61 pontoons…which is a temporary pontoon sank and cause the subsequent spans to be submerged,” Adams said.

A section of the emergency team executing works to restore the bridge to normalcy

He added that maintenance teams had installed the first salvage pontoon and they were in the process of recovering the submerged pontoon.

“We are hoping that the tide changes so that we can start pumping water from the pontoon…we expect these works to take the best part of today, tonight and tomorrow, so the bridge will be out of operation for the best part of two days,” Adams explained.

He said that on Sunday morning at about 05:30 hrs teams were working in the area executing scheduled maintenance works.

A section of the submerged pontoon

“We suspect that the jaws on one of the unicorns that was assembled on the pontoon broke and started taking in water,” Adams.

Further, teams will be working to ensure the bridge can be used by light vehicles by tomorrow.

The DHB is the phase of executing planned emergency works to ensure the structure of the bridge remains intact.

Earlier in the year the bridge was closed to both vehicular and ocean going vessels as maintenance teams were executing critical works around the retractor span.

The pontoon which has already been fitted to replace the temporary pontoon which sank

Adams in today’s press conference said that to ensure the structure remains operational, ongoing maintenance works are scheduled and executed on a regular basis.

“It is not that the bridge collapsed due to maintenance, but it was in the process of executing maintenance works,” Adams explained.

7/24/121:29 AM