Demerara Harbour Bridge set for earlier reopening at 6 PM today – Edghill

The Demerara Harbour Bridge, which was closed to facilitate much-needed repair works this week, will reopen at 18:00 hrs on Thursday, six hours ahead of schedule.

This was announced by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill early Thursday morning during a visit to the site.

“We are doing a lot of the fine-tuning… and we are anticipating that by 6 PM this evening, the bridge will be open to vehicular traffic.

“Persons can start getting themselves ready and adjusted for a 6PM opening of the bridge,” Edghill said during his visit.

The earlier reopening, he said, comes as works have been ahead of schedule since Tuesday, hours after the bridge closed.

By Thursday afternoon, it is expected that the bridge will undergo a retraction to guarantee that it is in working order, and by 16:00 hrs, there will be a final cleaning of the structure.

The Demerara Harbour is the only bridge connecting Regions Three and Four; thousands of commuters use it every day.

The closure of the Demerara Harbour Bridge is the facilitate the replacement of the Span 9 which was damaged in September last year when the Panamanian flagged vessel, MV Tradewinds Passion, crashed into the bridge during a retraction period and rendered the bridge inoperable for several days.

On Tuesday, General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Watson also highlighted that other repair works are ongoing at the bridge. Another $85 million is being spent on fixing the High Span while internal works, costing $60 million, are ongoing at Spans 12 to 29 and 39 to 61.