–Linden Mayor gives Wismar Bridge clean bill of health

LINDEN Mayor, Mr Carwyn Holland,on Tuesday put paid to the ongoing debate over the Wismar Bridge, saying there’s nothing wrong with it; that it’s “structurally sound”.

Talk around the mining town is that the 49-year old bridge, which links the Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice) communities of Wismar and Mackenzie, is in such a deplorable state and it ought to be condemned.
But as Holland told media operatives Tuesday during a meeting at the Linden Town Council, based on the reports that he’s received from engineers in the region, all that the bridge lacks is “some maintenance”.

This being the case, he said, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will, in addition to sandblasting it to spruce it up a bit, be carrying out some repairs to the wooden deck area atop the bridge.
He said, too, that from here on, the Town Council will be taking responsibility for the upkeep of the bridge, and using the revenue earned from bridge tolls for its maintenance and other community development projects.
“We look forward to caring it better. This community has been paying for that bridge for decades, and it is time that the bridge returns something to the people of Linden,” Holland declared.

He, however, indicated that plans are afoot to construct a new bridge, and that discussions are underway.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure had earlier announced that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was to have funded a feasibility study to the tune of US$800K for the Wismar Bridge, but that plan has since been shelved, as the money has been diverted to other projects.

Holland, however, quoted the MPI as saying that Budget 2018 will cater for the study, and possibly look at the relocation of the bridge.
But in the meantime, he said, residents will need to monitor the weight going over the current bridge, so as not to put undue pressure on it.