The Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) is expected to fix the problematic Good Hope Stelling within a week as truckers along the Essequibo Coast express frustration at resorting to the use of the old Adventure stelling.
Reports are that the drawbridge at the Good Hope Stelling collapsed under the weight of a truck on Thursday morning, resulting in a backup of traffic.
The vehicles were subsequently rerouted to the Adventure ferry stelling, where they later boarded the MV Torani.
This newspaper understands that the T&HD had sent its engineers on Thursday to assess the situation. According to a source at Supenaam, a truck was attempting to board the MV Torani and as it crossed the drawbridge, the structure broke.
He said some of the hinges on the structure were damaged, while the structure itself will require repairs. The T&HD engineers gave a one-week timeline within which the situation will be remedied.
A trucker told this newspaper yesterday that the incident may have been in the making since early in the week, as T&HD personnel at the stelling were “giving we certain weight limits to get on the ferry.” He added, “it gat to be that they know something was wrong.” He said the incident was frustrating since no one from the transport body said anything about the situation until late afternoon on Thursday.
He said the incident is likely to affect businesses along the Essequibo Coast since many had been forced to cancel orders for produce made by persons at Parika and in the city. “This thing frustrating because we ain’t know when again something like this happening,” the man added.
The $450 million project has been mired in controversy from its inception and engineers Marcel Gaskin and Bert Carter, who probed the failure of the docking system in 2010, flayed both the supervisor VIKAB Engineer-ing and BK International.
Their findings raised concerns about the integrity of the design and unauthorised changes leading to wasteful expenditure.
The two engineers, in a report which was tabled in Parliament earlier this year, almost two years after it was undertaken had stated, “there seems to be no sense of pride asso
As regards the drawbridge, which had buckled under the weight of vehicles when the stelling was first unveiled, the engineers stated that in relation to the link bridge ramp and pontoon, both consultants associated would be “hard pressed to admit that they had any previous experience in the field.
If they can confidently claim any knowledge, either by experience or association, then the mistakes made would have to be accounted for by gross negligence.”
