The minister made the announcement on the sidelines of a small staff gathering on Friday at the Harbour Bridge.
“In the wee hours this morning we concluded the financing agreement so very soon Guyanese will see work moving apace. You will be seeing this happening, modernisation taking place and all the rest of it. We got to continue to bring development and progress to Guyana”, he said.
The Public Works Ministry on May 25th signed a $52 billion (US$260 million) contract for the construction of the long-awaited new Demerara River Bridge.
The move falls into the government’s plans to expand and modernise Guyana’s transport infrastructure and significantly reduce the incessant traffic woes on the East Bank of Demerara.
The project, which has been long in the making by the PPP/C Administration, was awarded to China Railway Construction Corporation Limited. It is expected to commence immediately and be completed within two years.
The hybrid-designed bridge will feature a modern four-lane structure (two carriageways), a cycle lane, with a 2.65 kilometres length, a driving surface of about 23.6 metres or 77.8 feet, with a lifespan of some 100 years.
The new crossing will replace the current bridge, which has already outlived its span by some 40-plus years. With its mechanical and other issues, the current structure causes hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs each year.
The new bridge will provide better connectivity to the East Bank Demerara (EBD) road, the Diamond-to-Ogle bypass road on the eastern side of the river, as well as the West Bank Demerara Road including the Parika-to-Schoonord road on the western side of the river. (Department of Public Information)
