Repairs completed on Harbour Bridge; vessel owner to pay for damages

Repairs on the Demerara Harbour Bridge are now complete following damage from an incident on Wednesday where a tug and barge collided with the structures near the high span.

“We would have reconnected the anchors so that work is completed…we still have to do the alignment, but the bridge is structurally sound and safe to travel,” said General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), Mr Rawlston Adams.

The repairs on Thursday allowed the bridge to be opened for the scheduled 13:00h retraction, in addition to facilitating the crossing of heavy-duty vehicles that were barred due to the damages.

Currently, a process is underway to ascertain the cost of damages to be levied against the owner of the vessel.

“We are still crunching the numbers for the cost of the damages. We met with the representative of the owner, identified the damages and once we have those numbers, we will reconvene with the owner,” he said.

Looking to the future, Mr.Adams admitted that there is no singular solution to protect the bridge from a recurrence of similar incidents.

Nevertheless, he is optimistic the new DHBC Board of Directors will make a sound decision after examining their options. (Modified press release from DPI)