Demerara Harbour Bridge current closure times inconveniencing commuters

Dear Editor,

Could the Demerara Habour Bridge authority say if it’s more beneficial to the company to have a series of scheduled closures of the bridge at 5 am and 2:30 pm for 5 continuous days respectively? I can recall the initiative behind the introduction of night openings of the bridge for vessels, was premised on reducing the burden of day closures to vehicular traffic.

However, what has been seen is a reduction of the day closures between 8:30 am to 1:30 pm with “5:00 am and 2:30 pm” closures of the bridge to vehicular traffic bearing most of the scheduled closures. That time period coincides with the peak periods of vehicular traffic to and from West Demerara, resulting in severe fatigue and mayhem to commuters which at times can be very unbearable, in addition to the high levels of downtime and man-hours lost.

Given the plight of commuters, the Public Infrastructure Ministry should review the current situation to determine what makes more economic and financial sense in this regard and advise the general public accordingly.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Ramrattan