–commuters urged to put measures in place

THE Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) will undergo critical maintenance works on Saturday, lasting for some seven hours, and commuters who transit the bridge are asked to put the necessary measures in place to deal with extended closure.
General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), Rawlston Adams, during a press conference on Friday, explained that the closure is as a result of long overdue rehabilitation works.
He said the facility will be closed for seven hours on Saturday beginning from 08:30 hrs to facilitate the replacement of one of the extra-large pontoons which is used to support the bridge.
According to him, two weeks ago the bridge was again closed for six hours to accommodate the replacement of one of the pontoons under the retractor span on the western side. It is the “last of the extra-large pontoons under the retractor span on the eastern side which should have been changed over a year,that will now be changed.”
Alluding to other maintenance works which will be carried out, Adams said on Wednesday (today), the engineers will remove the walkway, stairs, and platforms. Following this, on Thursday they will disconnect hinges, hydraulic pipes and install the temporary pontoons, and on Friday they will remove the hydraulic hinges and pipes.
Those works will pave the way for the switching of the pontoons to be be completed on Saturday.
Finally, on Sunday the system will be reconnected and system checks will be conducted on Monday. It is expected that bridge would return to normal retractions by Tuesday.
“We’ve decided that we will do it one at a time and the method is to close the bridge to marine traffic, open to vehicular traffic, except for except for Saturday where we’ll be closing for a very lengthy period,” Adams highlighted.
The Corporation has already replaced four of its five pontoons catered for in its 2017 work programme.
July 2018 will be the 40th anniversary of the Demerara Harbour Bridge and Adams said the administration will continue to face, challenges including difficulties with some of the panels. “We’re seeing cracks and we’re doing work with them and we’re in discussion to change those panels next year, which would mean that the bridge would have to be shut down for three days in the first quarter, but we’re discussing what would be done.”
Another challenge the bridge is plagued with, is the issue of the sourcing parts. Adams said that recently DHBC has been storing dismantled components from the railway embankment bridges, especially pins and cardboards.
“We want to make sure we harvest all those components that come off those bridges and we will use them for our maintenance purposes. We have harvested a couple of hundreds of cardboards which are very important for keeping all the panels and the frames together. The issue is that the quality of cardboards that we would buy is not the same quality as the original, so we prefer to use the original,” Adams pointed out.
The maintenance works that is being effected on the bridge totals $102M.
The DHBC is a vital link for commuters between Regions Three, Four and further afield. It is estimated that close to 10,000 vehicles traverse the bridge daily. (DPI )