New Demerara Harbour Bridge will open after elections- Jagdeo

Last Updated on Sunday, 17 August 2025, 21:39 by Writer

The new Demerara Harbour Bridge would be opening during September, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo announced on Saturday night.

“You’ll be able to drive over that new bridge, I was hoping it would be completed before the elections but you’ve seen it. I think in the third week of September, it will be open,” he told a People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) election campaign meeting at Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara.

The Guyana government had already said that the bridge would be completed by August 31, 2025.

However, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said there would be no delay in the completion of the US$261 million bridge, but after the last slab of concrete is poured on August 25, the crane and other construction equipment would be removed. “I don’t know that there is a delay in the opening of the bridge. We are getting the bridge completed,” he told Demerara Waves Online News. Mr Edghill said after that slab of concrete is poured, the government would announce when the bridge would be opened.

Mr Jagdeo did not give a precise date, but quipped that the 2.65 kilometre long new east-west corridor across the Demerara River would be used to usher in the 2025-2030 PPPC administration. “And then, let’s celebrate the PPP victory by driving over that bridge when it opens in September,” he said.

The Public Works Minister said the crane and other heavy-duty equipment have to be removed to ensure safety for traffic plying the four-lane river bridge.

On the thorny question of load testing of the bridge, Mr Edghill said that was being done during the construction. “All the testing that is required for the testing of the bridge; all of the various stages of construction are being done and will be done,” he also said. “If the question is if the bridge could take the load, the answer is ‘yes’,” he said.

Load testing of bridges is a scientific process that is done to determine the safety and structural integrity of such a facility by examining parameters such as design live load of the structure, load distribution on the girders, and stiffness of the structure. Research shows that load testing has to be done based on specifications codes.

A source explained to Demerara Waves Online News that load testing is having 16 trucks at 15 tonnes each on two sides of the bridge span to ensure that the 17 cable-stay sections totalling 570 metres are being properly managed. The weight, the source said, also includes a 160-tonne crane or a girder that is running on the bridge.

Construction of the new Demerara Harbour Bridge by China Railway Construction Corporation (International) began in May 2023 and was originally billed to cost US$260 million.