SOME 9,000 vehicles transited the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) daily in 2015, a 4.8 per cent increase from the previous year; but overall income earned by the bridge in 2015 declined.The Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) has reported that, while $481M were garnered in revenue from vehicular traffic — an increase of 4.2 per cent over 2014 — overall income dipped from $533M in 2014 to $519M in 2015.

According to DHB General Manager Rawlston Adams, “Overall revenues went down because of contractual works that we do with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure”.

The major works completed during the year included fabrication of 70 buoys and installation of three transoms and a new generator. Additionally, there was the installation of a data transmission link to wirelessly link the bridge and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force at its Headquarters at Eve Leary, Georgetown.
This project enables the CID to access the cameras at the bridge to aid in investigations.

The DHB has the following works listed among its plans for 2016: servicing pontoons; changing sheaves and shackles; and connecting posts, fabricating buoy wire ropes, and rehabilitating the hydraulic system.

By late February, the DHB will be replacing two large pontoons at the retractor span.

Twenty-three international and local companies have submitted expressions of interest for the study and design of a new Harbour Bridge. Their submissions are being reviewed by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.

The Public Infrastructure Ministry’s Chief Works Officer, Geoffrey Vaughn, has said that Ministry has already evaluated the tenders and handed over the list to National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) for processing and short-listing.

Last month, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure received fresh expressions of interest for a new bridge across the Demerara River (See table of bidders below). Floating at 1.25 miles, the bridge is a strategic link between the eastern and western banks of the Demerara river. When opened in July 1978, the structure was expected to last for only 10 years; but 37 years later, it is still there.