THE Demerara Harbour Bridge’s (DHB) ‘span nine,’ which is valued at $1.2B, is currently being transported from the dockyard to the bridge for installation soon.

Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, providing an update on Saturday, said that the announcement date for the installation will be made after all systems are in place.

“We have to get into position [and] get everything in place. We have to get an agreement with all of the stakeholders because once it is going to be installed, it is going to cause interruption,” Minister Edghill told the Sunday Chronicle.

The replacement of span nine is a massive undertaking that cannot be done while traffic is flowing. The removal of the existing span will leave a significant gap on the bridge.

Therefore, it is imperative that everything is done correctly and that the replacement process is executed flawlessly. Once replaced, citizens will be able to see an enhanced retraction operation with a wider capacity to move vessels through the bridge.

The ministry will be utilising the newly commissioned power barge to transport citizens from the east to the west side during the replacement operation.

In October 2022, at approximately 02:00hrs the MV Tradewind Passion, a ship consigned by GuyOil to transport fuel, which also carries a Panamanian flag, crashed into the bridge.

The ship, which was supposed to drive in a southern direction to pass through the opening of the bridge, instead drove in a south-easterly direction and hit Spans Nine and 10 with its front and rear.

This resulted in the two spans of the bridge shifting some 45 degrees out of alignment. The ship was the fifth vessel to pass through the bridge for the morning.

Following the collision, the vessel has since been impounded and the pilot and crew were confined to the vessel.

The collision sent several DHB workers, who were on the bridge at the time, literally running for their lives.

Following assiduous work by the DHB staff and support from the private sector, the bridge was then reopened to vehicles weighing up to 12 tonnes a few days after and it was later announced that vehicles weighting up to 18 tonnes would be able to cross the bridge under special conditions.