…stakeholders respond swiftly to bridge accident 
…passengers, operators hail systems put in place

AUTHORITIES at the Georgetown to Vreed-en-Hoop Stelling were able to swiftly put measures in place, on Monday, to ease the traffic of commuters brought on by the closure of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, although during low tide, there was a buildup of passengers during certain periods.

Instead of opening at its usual hour of 06:00h on Monday, operations at the stelling began at 05:00h and closed at 22:00h instead of it’s usually closing time of 8pm.

When the boat service closed at 22:00h two emergency boats were still available, for cases where hospital patients may need to be transferred from the West Demerara Regional Hospital to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Extra measures at the stellings became necessary after a tug and barge ran into the Demerara Harbour Bridge early Monday morning, forcing an emergency closure of the bridge, leaving the Georgetown to Vreed-en-Hoop speedboat service as the only remaining option for persons traversing between the West and East Banks of Demerara.

Ease of traffic

Many commuters commended the effective response by authorities and ease of travelling on Monday morning, and Monday evening. Many west bank commuters anticipated possible congestion and disorder at the stellings on Monday morning; however they were instead met with a heavy police presence and ease in boarding and disembarking the speedboats. At the Vreed-en-Hoop end, police closed off the road leading to the stelling.

“I thought it would have been chaos and confusion, but the only stressful part was to walk from the junction to the stelling. It was smooth with police right through, so it was good,” commented Shawn Venture, who lives on the West Bank, and used the stelling to take his children to school in Georgetown. Twenty-one-year-old Mark King of Tuschen was really impressed with how the situation was handled. “It was a good response I don’t know if they were prepared for it before or what, but it was really good response,” he expressed.

Remain calm
Essequibo Islands-West Demerara Regional Information Officer, Ganesh Mahipaul, commended the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for stepping in to assist with the situation. “The GPF has been giving tremendous support. The GPF and the regional administration currently have the situation under control, the traffic is flowing smoothly, and persons are traversing as usual. We want to appeal to commuters to remain calm,” Mahipaul noted.

However, the day was not without its challenges, and while things were smooth throughout the day, at the Vreed-en-Hoop end, on the eastern side Stabroek stelling at times experienced periods of buildup of passengers. With some 56 speed boats operating the route, Harbour Master, Michael Tenant, explained that the issue was not a case of there not being enough vessels to handle the demand, but instead it was due to preventative measures being hampered during low tide.

“At the Transport and Harbours Landing there’s two steps, one of the step is for loading and one for disembarking, on a normal situation we would have one boat loading at one time, but when we have these situations we can accommodate a maximum of four boats to load at any one time,” Tenant explained. He said this situation allowed for a smooth flow during the morning and late evening, however during the day low tide impeded on the amount of boats that could load, causing a buildup of commuters.

“The challenge is not the number of officers on the ground, the challenge is when the tide is low. This port is a tidal port, so once there is not enough water vessels can’t come close up to the landing for persons to get easy access on and off, that is where the challenge comes,” Tenant related. “When the water is so low the boats are struggling to come out. Because of the tidal situation the landing cannot accommodate four speed boats at a time for the boats to move off. It’s only about two boats can come in and load at a time.”

The situation was exacerbated at the Stabroek Stelling, by early afternoon, during rush hour, however by late afternoon, as the tide came in, the congestion was quickly eased with as many as 15 boats loading at a time. Tenant explained that another section of the Stabroek Stelling – the Harbour Master Boat House – was opened to the public for the boats to load passengers, while both of the steps of the landing were utilized to offload passengers.

The situation, nonetheless, inconvenienced many, who had to park their vehicles and utilize the boat services instead. “This is ok at the stelling, but it’s very inconvenient, for instance I have a car and now I have to come here to catch the boat. I’m from Georgetown and I’m just came for a walk and I’m going over back now,” commented Enrique McClennan, as he stood waiting to board a speedboat at the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling on Tuesday.

But one man’s poison is another man’s treasure, and as commuters spent the day irritated by the inconvenience, speed boat operators, on the contrary, joyously spent the day capitalizing on the increase in business. “I feel good, who wouldn’t feel good about this? Would we like the opportunity for this to happen again? Yes bring it on,” commented a smiling bowman, Visham Dat, as he loaded his boat at the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling.

On a regular day Dat makes an average of ten trips, but during yesterday’s situation he estimated that he would be able to run about 20 trips, by midday on Monday he had already made his daily quota and had plans to work until 10pm. Dat, who has been working as a boat operator for the past 16 years, had further plans to capitalize on the situation, and work throughout the day on Tuesday.

Another boat operator, Anthony Chichester also foresaw himself doubling his average daily quota. “I make about 8 trips go, 8 trips come. For me I average for the day [Monday] about 16, 18 trips go and come. Whenever I can get a bit more I accept and bless,” said Anthony Chichester, he planned to close up work around 7pm.