Feasibility study for new Demerara Harbour Bridge completed

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

The feasibility study for the new Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) has been completed and proposed locations will be identified in time Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon.

He told reporters on Wednesday that the study was not yet before the Cabinet.

“Our expectation is that the study will soon be before Cabinet, and on that basis decisions would soon be made about proposed locations and the complexities of the structures,” GINA reported Dr. Luncheon as saying.

He added that financing remained a major consideration and would feature when the Cabinet studied the document.

The options for a new Demerara River bridge were revealed during the March 25 presentation of the 2013 National Budget. Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh said then that the Government had started a technical examination of the options for constructing a new bridge.

He said that it was envisaged that government would invite expressions of interest for a public- private partnership for the project this year.

GINA reports that the proposed project will see the bridge being made of reinforced concrete, having four lanes for vehicular traffic (20 metres (m) wide), walkway for pedestrians inclusive of cycle lane, loading (HS 25 or CSA 600), navigational clearance (100m wide), navigational aids, air draft (50m), adequate marine collision protection at navigational channel and an estimated length of 2250m.

The design and possible locations for the new bridge were proposed at the 3rd Engineering Conference by the DHB’s General Manager, Rawlston Adams. Versailles on the West Bank of Demerara to Houston on the East Bank of Demerara, and Good Hope on the East Bank of Demerara and Patentia on the West Bank of Demerara have been put forward as possible locations.

The current structure was commissioned in 1978 and has long passed its operational life expectancy.