In this recent photo (Courtesy DYWIDAG International)Minister Anthony Xavier, (left) in discussion with Rickford Lowe (centre) coordinator of the Ministry's Work Services Group (formerly Project Execution Unit) and Uwe Griesbach, project manager, DYWIDAG
Six of the 27 bridges being reconstructed between Rosig-nol and Timehri will be complete before the end of December, DYWIDAG international, the contractor indicated last week.
Two of the bridges under the US$22M-Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded project have already been completed at Onverwagt and Belladrum and a third is to be opened this week at Beehive, project manager, Uwe Griefbach told Stabroek Business.
Before the end of next month, the bridge at Lusig-nan would be completed, followed by the ones at Nootenzuil/Belfield and Strathspey/Coldingen.
The project got underway in January, causing much traffic congestion. Commuters wishing to get to work in time and not miss appointments have to leave home at least half an hour earlier or face being caught up in a traffic jam miles long. And having the police escorts put a damper on the more exuberant drivers.
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Communication public relations adviser, Ajay Baksh, the congestion is a small price citizens have to pay for the development associated with the project and to avoid any catastrophe with the old bridges which were constructed with timber, overlaid with asphalt. Many of the timber structures were rotten. It was because of the timber base that the burning of the bridge at Onverwagt had been so easy in the aftermath of the last elections.
The midday traffic on the East Coast.
In the first phase of the project, 27 bridges, 47 culverts and eight miscellaneous structures (replacing bridges with embankment and pavement among others things) are to be constructed. The bridges are being constructed with pre-stressed concrete with an expected life-span of 10 years.
Baksh and Joe Holder, a DYWIDAG engineer, have both indicated that the pre-stressed bridges take 66 days to cure to allow for a more durable structure.
The project includes new bridges for the Mahaica and Mahaicony Rivers. Phase II of the project will commence once this project concludes next November and will cover another 68 structures.
In the current project, a number of steel bridges have been temporarily put in place to create a bypass to allow for the full dismantling of existing bridges.
These structures will be dismantled once the new bridges are open to the public and may be placed in rural areas needing bridges.
The construction of the culverts is, however, behind DYWIDAG's schedule, according to Griefbach. These culverts were subcontracted out to local contractors including Cush, Courtney Ben and Reasat.
Griefbach said these culverts were to be completed ahead of the bridges by April 2004 but because of some amount of underestimation, they will be completed by October 2004 instead.
"Our intention was to complete the culvert structures well before our overall construction deadline...they will not be complete by April as we had envisaged but will be by October," Griefbach said.
DYWIDAG has employed some 210 persons since the project started and has four teams working simultaneously. The pre-stressed structures are being constructed at its plant in Onverwagt.
Griefbach explains that if the firm encounters difficulties in any one structure, it immediately moves on to another bridge to make maximum use of time until the difficulties are cleared. For example, when the company began to build the diversion bridge at Strathspey, it encountered rising water levels, dependent on Guysuco's pumping and has had to wait until Guysuco could have held off pumping water for an entire day which was last Monday to finish off the abutment. In the interim, DYWIDAG moved on to the Lusignan bridge. Addition-ally, because of interference with telephone cables and water lines, work on the Le Ressouvenir Bridge has not proceeded as quickly as the company had anticipated.
Meanwhile, Griefbach indicates that DYWIDAG is two weeks behind schedule on the Mahaicony bridge project but is on target with the Mahaica bridge. Mahaicony will be completed by July while Mahaica is scheduled to be completed by the start of November.