WORK has started on the reconstruction of the Saffon Street Bridge, in Georgetown, that will facilitate a link to the four-lane roadway starting at Broad Street and continuing South into the East Bank Demerara corridor. The contactor, Mr. Roy Bassoo, of R.Bassoo and Sons Construction Company, said the project is slated for completion in three or four months.
He said he is working closely with the utility companies to ensure that all of the necessary electricity and telephone lines are removed from the area before the job can progress any further.
“This structure will be a pre-stress/post tension and we need to drivel 80 feet long piles into the ground and all the high voltage cables will have to be removed,” Bassoo informed.
He said Guyana Power & Light (GPL) has already begun to cooperate and is now in the process of installing new poles near the bridge to rewire the grid.
When that is completed, the heavy machinery on site would then be able to resume operations, Bassoo said.
He said Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) as well as Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) are also being cooperative in that regard.
Bassoo said he expects to proceed without any further hindrances as all the vending stalls have been relocated.
Last month, several La Penitence Market vendors moved from along Saffon Street to make way for the Inter-American Development Bank funded undertaking that would allow for a significant increase in vehicular traffic along the roadway.