Engineering experts believe the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) erred when it opted not to request an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the new Demerara Harbour Bridge since the information contained in such a study is integral to how firms would propose a design.
“The winning consortium will have to design the bridge. Ultimately, you only will have a design and alignment when that firm designs that bridge, because as it is, all that is known now is that it is a fixed bridge. So it is really mind boggling why the EPA would just renege on having such important and integral information,” an international engineer, who asked not to be named, told Sunday Stabroek.
“Everything that needs to be done should be guided from the data and information collected from that EIA and to not have it potentially opens up the country or puts it at risk of not getting value for dollar. I think it is premature of the EPA… to make a statement like it did … they perhaps don’t understand the implications of what they are saying and clearly weren’t guided by expert engineering personnel,” another engineer added.
