If the 43-year-old Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) is to last until the new high-span, four-lane structure is in place, the driving culture and attitudes of truck drivers will need some serious adjustment.
This is according to the Harbour Bridge General Manager, Wayne Watson.
On Thursday, he pointed out that much of the wear and tear done to the Bridge can be attributed to the more than 1,500 large trucks that traverse daily.
And even though a weight restriction was introduced to lessen the load on the Bridge, it does nothing to stop the reckless attitude seen daily, he pointed out.
“There are instances where the trucks are beyond control,” the General Manager stressed.
“The rate at which the trucks are traversing the bridge, it is not something that you will want to be on the Bridge to witness.”
He pointed out too that even in the cases where these trucks are not laden with goods, the speed at which they use the Harbour Bridge is cause for concerns and the damage is felt.
“The effects can be seen at the critical points which we call the braking and acceleration points of the Bridge, which are some regions where the trucks will brake to climb or they will accelerate, and those are critical areas where we see most of the effects,” Watson added.
Watson pointed out too that other vehicles are not exempt from blame.
As of recent, he said that there have been instances where vehicles deemed “unfit” were crossing the Bridge, posing a danger to themselves and other commuters.
“We had a minibus…the entire back axel loosed off and then we have sand trucks with no jacks, no spare wheels and so apart from the speeding and the weight, we have persons traversing the Bridge with vehicles that are not fit and that’s a whole heap of additives to our issue,” he explained.
The General Manager concluded that the only way this dangerous culture can be controlled is a complete change in the attitudes of the more than 24,000 drivers who use the Harbour Bridge daily.
Without it, persons will continue to further deteriorate the Harbour or worse, cause serious harm to others.
