Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter in the Stabroek News of April 24, captioned ‘If a new Demerara Bridge cost US$300M to build and 5300 cars use it in a day $31,000 would have to be charged for each vehicle to break even’ written by Malcolm Alli. My friend Malcolm continues to get it all wrong.
I reprint from my letter which was published in the paper of April 23.
“Malcolm’s assumption that 2000 cars cross the bridge daily in one direction is far too low. As shown in the chart the number is 160,000/month or roughly 5,300/day if taxis are counted as cars. Furthermore, 270,000 vehicles/month or 9,000/day contribute to the revenue stream. He should have used at least 9000 in his analysis.”
Malcolm clearly misunderstood what was published. My letter states that 5300 cars and taxis cross the bridge daily and 9,000 vehicles/day contribute to the revenue stream. Vehicles not only include cars and taxis, but buses, trucks, etc. These also pay a toll to cross therefore he should have used 9000 in his analysis.
Anyway to demonstrate how ridiculous his analysis is, I will present a calculation using his numbers. Using his conversion rate, that is, G$31,000 is equal to US$155 then:
5300 cars/day multiplied by $155/car will yield revenue of US$821,000/day.
US$821,500/day multiplied by 365days/year will yield revenue of US$299,847,500/year.
These numbers show the bridge will be paid for in a year. I am reasonably sure a transport economist would use from 50 to 70 years in his analysis. And not to put my mouth where it has no place to be I will not venture a guess what toll would result, only to say it will be far lower than US$155.
I will again leave it to a structural engineer to comment on the possibility of spanning the river with a concrete structure. My gut feeling, however, is that he is as far off the mark on this point as on vehicle numbers and a toll of US$155 for a car to cross the bridge.
Yours faithfully,
Edward Gonsalves
