Dear Editor,
With reference to the report in your edition of March 15, captioned ‘New Chinese ferries may force modifications to bungled stelling,’ I should like to say that this is a major blunder.
If it is a roll-on, roll-off ferry, then the ferry stelling at Good Hope would have to be re-designed and rebuilt. The existing stelling at Parika would also have to be modified and rebuilt to accommodate this type of ferry. This is a major and costly problem to fix, and the government does not have the engineering expertise to correct it.
In a letter to this newspaper last year (‘Can the wharves at Supenaam and Parika accommodate a roll-on, roll-off ferry?’ SN, December 30, 2010) I enquired whether a drawing of the proposed ferry was ever given to the engineering design consultant before commencing structural design work on the stelling.
I went on to say that from my experience working in the Far East the roll-on, roll-off ferry operates differently from the ferry built by Sprostons that is presently used in Guyana. Passengers are only allowed to enter and exit from the upper level, and all vehicles enter from the front of the ferry and on arrival at the destination are driven straight out in front onto the wharf, thereby making the turnaround of the ferry system much more efficient and timely.
The upper level for the passengers is also designed and built differently.
From the drawing that I have seen on the Internet, the recently constructed Supenaam Stelling is built to discharge vehicles the traditional way, ie, from the side of the ferry and not from the front. I can also assume that there would be the same problem at the Parika end and that no reconstruction of this stelling has taken place to cater for this type of ferry.
There appears to be no coordination between ministries and another costly mistake appears to have taken place.
This type of ferry would have worked admirably for the much shorter Berbice and Georgetown to West Coast runs, and would have eliminated the present siltation experienced in both rivers that has resulted in enormous erosion of the eastern banks of the rivers.
The cost also would have been cheaper. I wrote about this earlier, but the government chose the more expensive floating bridge route for the Berbice run.
Yours faithfully,
M Alli
