Barge owner to pay for damages as repairs completed on Demerara Harbour Bridge

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The Demerara Harbour Bridge
The Demerara Harbour Bridge

General Manager of the Demerara Habour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) on Thursday afternoon disclosed that repairs on the bridge have been completed.

The Harbour Bridge sustained damages yesterday after a barge collided crashed into it.

“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,” General Manager stated.

The repairs, earlier today, allowed the bridge to be opened for the scheduled 1 o’clock 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.

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