Workers attached to the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, and related agencies began their work to replace Span 9 on the bridge just after the stroke of midnight.

The bridge will remain closed to all traffic until midnight on Thursday.

Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill visited the site of the replacement works this morning and observed that the process is progressing ahead of schedule and with no issues.

The old span is being moved out and the new span will be carefully fitted in the coming days.

“We have already been able to detach the old Span 9, and the new Span 9 is in place and they are working to get it aligned”, Edghill said.

He noted that with the works already ahead of schedule, “there is no need to panic. They are doing well and they are ahead of schedule”.

With the bridge closed, the water taxis boat services have started to operate around the clock on a 24hrs basis, to allow the movement of people between the West and East Banks of the Demerara river.

Minister Edghil said there are now three crossing points. One crossing point is located between Stabroek Market and Vreed-en-hoop, another is located close to the current bridge location and the third crossing area is between Grove and Wales.

“As of 5am, the monitoring has escalated and we have a number of personnel on the ground and it has been smooth, the comments that I have received is surprise, smooth, no mob like behaviour”, he said.

The General Manager at the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Wayne Watson explained that the calmness of the Demerara river this morning, allowed additional work to be done after the new span was put into place, and thereby allowing the contractors to get ahead of the schedule.

He said although works are currently ahead of schedule, the bridge company will still stick to the three-day closure schedule to ensure all repair works and installations works are properly done and completed.

The Demerara Harbour Bridge links the two banks of the Demerara river, bringing together Regions 3 and 4.

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