Emergency works on the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) to repair damage from a massive collision remain on schedule with engineers labouring around the clock to meet tonight’s reopening deadline, General Manager Wayne Watson says.
In brief interview yesterday, Watson explained that they have completed works on span 10 and dropped the anchor blocks in place to have it realigned with the other spans.
Works, he went on to state have commenced on spans 9, 8 and 7 and should be completed in time for tonight.
Watson said that they are utilising engineers from the Harbour Bridge technical team and the private sector. No traffic has been possible on the bridge since Saturday morning.
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill on Saturday at a press conference described the situation as a “national emergency” that required rallying all the authorities to deal with the situation.
Edghill said that at about 2 am on Saturday, the Tradewind Passion, a Panamanian registered vessel, was navigating the channel to offload fuel at GuyOil’s Providence Terminal. The vessel was the fifth one to transit the channel with the previous four experiencing no issue. The crash crumpled sections of the bridge and is believed to be the most serious collision in years on the 44-year-old structure.
At the time of the incident, the vessel was being piloted through the channel by one of Guyana’s five river pilots. Noting the unusual circumstances that led to the accident, the pilot was taken into custody by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) and handed over to the police for drug and alcohol testing. However, the results of those tests returned negative and according to MARAD, the vessel was fully manned at the time of the crash.
Edghill, while detailing the scope of works to be executed on the bridge had said government authorities were working with a number of private sector entities to expedite the repair works. “We have members of the private sector that are preparing components, manufacturing components. We need to get a pontoon that is badly damaged and taking in water replaced, we need to get end posts, we need to get other gears and mechanical parts to ensure that the retractor can adequately work.
During the course of yesterday afternoon, President Irfaan Ali and Edghill visited the bridge for an update on the works being carried out.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Edghill said “everything that needed to be in place is already in place and works are underway to get the bridge back to operation in the shortest possible time.”
Both Edghill and Ali expressed gratitude to the workers who have been on the assignment for the past 48 hours.
Watson yesterday said that Ship Supervisor Andy Duke, who was injured as a result of the collision, remains hospitalised and in good spirits. He is scheduled to undergo surgery during the course of this week.
“Mr Andy Duke who was a ship supervisor, who was on the radio indicating to this vessel that you are not coming in keeping with standards, move, turn around, drop your anchor [and] everything to avoid this and he stayed to the last moment. When he couldn’t stay anymore, (he) jumped from his tower to get to safety,” Edghill on Saturday explained.
Edghill also said that Duke’s family was engaged and measures are in place to secure their welfare.
DHB mechanical maintenance engineer Ahmad Khan said that there were about five persons on the retractor span at the time of the accident. He said that the ordeal was deeply traumatising for the workers who had to scamper to safety at the very last minute before impact.
He noted that because there were scheduled maintenance works ongoing, there were welders on the pontoons as well and when he realised that the vessel would hit the bridge, the directive was given for the men to run.
“At the very last minute I see that this ship will hit and I tell them man to start running off the bridge. We all had to run. The impact knock out both sides out of the alignment and then this span start to crumble like. In all my years I have never seen anything like this and it was very frightening,” Khan said on Saturday.
Grave concern
Meanwhile, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday expressed grave concern at the incident and called on all captains and operators of vessels traversing the Demerara River to take maximum precautions to avoid accidents especially when near to the bridge.
“Thousands of Guyanese depend on the bridge to go about their daily lives and hundreds of millions of dollars is lost daily when the bridge is out of commission. Over the past few weeks, there (has been significant damage) sustained to the bridge due to barges hitting the infrastructure. We are fearful that the frequency of this situation can eventually lead to the Harbour Bridge becoming compromised and out of service for extended periods, causing a national disaster, especially in the context of the major developmental projects that are taking place on both sides of the river.
“We are fully aware that increased marine traffic, because of the Oil and Gas industry, exponentially increases the risk of such accidents. Thus, we implore the Government of Guyana to assiduously pursue the highly anticipated New Demerara River Bridge. It is evident that Guyana needs this project to allow for the passage of larger vessels which are required for the proper functioning of the Oil & Gas sector as well as the traditional ones. We envisage that a modern four lane solid state bridge will lead to faster economic growth and maximum utilization of resources on both sides of the river, as there will be 24-hour access daily, thereby positively impacting private sector business and the lives of the citizenry”, the PSC said.
The PSC also urged all regulatory agencies to do better.
“As we await the findings of the investigation underway, we urge that better systems be put in place to ensure safer operation of this important infrastructure. It is our expectation that the Maritime Administration Department will take a more proactive approach in supervision on the bridge”, the PSC said.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar said on Saturday that there would have to be changes in the way navigation of the Demerara River channel is done. He explained that the current system is not ideal and as a result there would have to be improvements.
Indar said that Guyana has about six river pilots that work with vessels traversing the channel. Those river pilots do not include the 15 that are attached to MARAD. The six pilots are represented by an association which would be contacted by the vessels to navigate then through the channels. The Minister noted that these pilots are experienced and have extensive knowledge of the channels and it is one of the reasons why the government is baffled as to how an incident of this magnitude could have occurred.
“This vessel hit both sides. The bow hit span 9 and shifted it out 45 degrees…that means that the metal is broken. Everything under the structure of the bridge is broken. If you thought the sand barge that hit the bridge was bad…this is 10 times worse from a layman’s perspective. That is why we are putting all these measures in place because of the amount of work,” Indar noted.
He told reporters that MARAD has already met with the pilot and captain of the vessel, before adding that under the new changes, a MARAD officer would be on every vessel traversing the Demerara River channel to ensure optimal safety.
