Construction of the new US$260M Demerara River Bridge is advancing with the Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill expressing confidence that the project will be completed by August 2025.

During a visit to the construction site along the East Bank Demerara Corridor on Sunday, the Works Minister explained that works are ongoing day and night with additional workers on the project.

The contractor, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, has added more than 100 workers to fast-track the completion of the bridge.

“And for those of us who are wondering if the bridge is going to be finished by the deadline, that’s what we are working towards, all things go well. We have been working with the Chinese contractor and the consultants to increase their teams. And, what do I mean? If the contractor is working, the consultant also needs to have more resources on ground to supervise and to ensure that everything is in order. So, we have to increase the size of the consultant’s team, and we have to increase the size of the workers,” Minister Edghill said.

The East Bank Demerara corridor between the Ramada Princess Hotel and Nandy Park was closed all weekend to facilitate the installation of the girder. Some aspects of the installation were completed ahead of schedule.

“We knew that an interruption of this carriage way would cause great inconvenience, and a lot of planning was put into it, and the execution was seamless, without incident, and we are very, very happy about that,” Minister Edghill told reporters.  

He said the project could have been advanced even further, but it faced multiple delays in the early stages, including issues with the relocation of some residents in the path of the bridge.

“If you could recall, this entire section caused some amount of delay to this project because we had to get the removal of the houses, and the people who were living there. And any Guyanese who is objective and fair minded would recognize that since we were able to get those houses relocated significant amount of work, in record time, has been done,” he said.

The bridge was initially expected to be completed by the end of last year. An extension was initially announced that should have seen the bridge being completed by the end of March. When that became unrealistic, the new August deadline was announced.

Related posts:

President not happy with pace of works for connecting roads for new Demerara River Bridge; No work extensions to be granted New Demerara River Bridge gets extended completion date; Costs likely to increase Government will pay market value for properties to be acquired for new Demerara Bridge construction -Minister Edghill assures Budget 2022: $76.7 Billion allocated for roads and bridges; Preparation works for new Demerara bridge to begin