– says Edghill
MINISTER of Public Works, Juan Edghill, on Friday, said that the construction of the US$260 million Demerara Habour Bridge is on track to be completed in 2024.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event, the Minister said that the works are “progressing”.
Last year, the government signed a contract with Chinese joint venture – China Railway Construction (International) Limited (CRCCL) for the bridge.
Supervision of this project is being done by Politecnica, an Italian supervisory firm.
“The work on the Demerara Harbour Bridge is progressing. We’re actually going to see a ramping up of the pile driving in the actual river because the contract is right now creating an area where they will have to cordon off to be able to start doing actual physical construction,” the Minister said.
He further explained that 250 containers of steel will be used to put in a temporary bridge right across the alignment… to do the construction of the bridge.
“They’ve already driven the piles to put in four concrete batching plants, two on the east side and two on the west side. So work is progressing, and we are holding them [contractors] to the deadline,” Minister Edghill added.
On Friday, CRCCL presented its progress report on the new bridge to Minister Edghill.
The team was led by Li Chongyang, President/ Director of CRCCL, who assured the Minster that work is progressing well, and that the project should be completed within its contractual time period.
The new bridge is expected to be some 2.65 kilometres long with two carriageways and four lanes. It is a hybrid design with a high span having a cable-stay design, even as the vertical height of the bridge is to be constructed at 50 metres from the mean highest watermark.
This new bridge is said to have a design lifespan of 100 years and will take the place of the existing bridge, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, surpassing its projected lifespan.
