By Enid Joaquin“Disappointed”, is how Linden Interim Management Committee Chairman Orrin Gordon has summed up his reaction to a correspondence he is in receipt of from Prime Minister Samuel Hinds on a proposal for the rehabilitation of twelve ‘critical’ bridges along the Linden to Lethem road.The letter was in response to a proposal by Gordon and former Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo in the year 2010, in which they outlined what was required to refurbish the bridges to ascertain their capacity to withstand a maximum sustained load of 60 tons.According to the proposal which was seen by this newspaper, an inspection team, which included Mr Paul Jones, an eminent welding contractor in Linden, with wide experience in construction projects, including the fabrication of pontoons for the Demerara Harbour bridge and repairs to the Mackenzie/Wismar bridge, was dispatched to the Linden to Lethem road,Cheap Soccer Jerseys, to assess which of the 39 bridges needed immediate attention.Based on his assessment, Jones had advised that twelve of the bridges needed urgent attention.He also concluded that the current timber bridges of three or four 2’x12’ greenheart planks on each side was inadequate to sustain the load of 60 tons. The average length of most of these bridges is reportedly 29 feet.Other bridges in the savannahs, which incorporate both steel and wood in their designs, were also found to be inadequate.According to the proposal, the new bridges should be constructed of steel beams, readily available for sale at the OMAI wharf at an approximate cost of US$10 per foot.The beam’s specifications are 36″x12″x3/4″ thickness, 24″x12″ x5/8″, 12″x12″x1/2 “thickness and channel iron 12”x3″x1/2″ thickness.The proposal also pointed out that a large quantity of railroad lines stockpiled in Linden,Cheap Jerseys From China, under the aegis of the Linmine Secretariat. would be used in the construction of reinforcement for the bridges,Cheap Football Jerseys, rendering them capable of withstanding loads of up to 82 tons, and the ready availability of these materials allows for expediting of the project.Further, it was proposed, that most of the construction be undertaken in Linden, where the requisite skills exist to prefabricate most of the components for the bridges.The completed components would then be transported to the sites, which would have been prepared with revetment work and the establishment of necessary bypasses, the proposal stated.While the timeline stipulated for the execution and completion of the twelve bridges was four months, it was further pointed out that the more critical ones would have been the first to be rehabilitated, and these would have been completed in three months.ResponsePrime Minister Samuel Hinds,Cheap NFL Jerseys From China, in his response to Gordon regarding the proposal for the rehabilitation of the twelve bridges, noted, “your letter dated 2013-06-10 has been studied and I can assure you that I and all members of government want to have the Linden to Lethem road, inclusive of the bridges, advanced as early as possible.“The limiting constraint is the availability of money, bearing in mind the calls all across our country for improvements of roads,Cheap Jerseys Store, and very much so, our growing network of hinterland roads.Over the years government has been allocating as much as it reasonably could, some $250 to $300million per year, for specified road and bridge works, along the Linden/Lethem road, awarded through competitive bids.”The Prime Minister further said that if Government had the money, they would ‘usefully spend’ $3 -$5million per mile per year on the Linden to Lethem road, which is some 265 miles long. That expenditure, he pointed out, would add up to some $795 M to $1325 M per year, but that amount could not yet be allocated, without ignoring other ‘critical needs’.“Many persons, including myself and the government, would like to have an asphaltic concrete road with reinforced concrete or steel bridges”,NFL Jerseys Supply, the Prime minister stated in his letter.Hinds added that since 2009, the Guyana government has been steadily engaged with their Brazilian counterparts in talks about the issue of having a paved road, and that in the first half of 2013, it was one of the subjects addressed during four meetings between the two sides.He alluded to a newspaper article of 2013-07-12 in which there was a report on an agreement signed between Guyana and Brazil ‘in the margins of the Mercosur Conference”, which included arrangements for a detailed feasibility study to construct an asphaltic concrete road from Lethem to Linden with pre stressed concrete bridges, including a bridge across the Kurupukari.A realistic estimate of the aforementioned project Hinds concedes is between US$250 and$350 mil or 50 to 70 billion Guyana dollars.“We have to think of how this development may be financed, where the money might be found and put together, and then amortized (paid off). If we think of a reasonable return, on this investment of only 8% per year, one must think of G$$4000 to G$5600mil, just in annual interest payments.Hinds added that the road ‘we aspire to’ would require ‘very concessionary financing’, including grants, and “great faith” for an increase in traffic which increase revenue flows to the country, whether directly or indirectly to justify the outlay.With reference to the question of the potential Brazil traffic, Hinds reasoned that Guyanese would have to make the Brazilians very welcome, expedite documents processing and guarantee their comfort and safety.He also said that he had no doubt that that potential users of the Linden-Lethem road want to have addressed the history of this route being shut down from time to time.“To the specific question of the bridges and the offer of groups in Linden, I share with you the ‘desperate’ need to put utilized or underutilized persons and materials to work.However conscious of the money’s we can allocate now to the road, my judgment, is to continue using wooden bridges, hopefully well built, which with regular maintenance, could last up to ten years, with first costs probably less than a third than any of the bridges,” Hinds declared.Gordon in a recent media briefing said that the wooden bridges, which Hinds alluded to, would not adequately support the weight of the containers that would be coming out of Brazil.He also pointed out that the bridges of reinforced concrete and steel proposed by him and Mingo would cost about twenty million and would last about fifty years, or a minimum of thirty years. The bridges would each accommodate up to one hundred and twenty tonnes, Gordon said.However the bridges that are being proposed by Government is expected to cost about $100mil each, he noted.“Now the Brazilians have done their part on their side, they did their side of the road right up to the border, but now they are waiting on us to reciprocate on our side, but this is not happening. The Brazilians have been drumming at our door; they want to pass through here. They want to transport soya beans to Columbia and to bring back fertilizer from Trinidad.Going through the longer route to the south means they have to spend almost double what they would to pass through Guyana.Only recently, last month to be exact, one of the bridges floated away, and this has happened before. These wooden bridges are not standing up, so it makes no sense to continue to make wooden bridges.We have to ensure that we do our part to ensure that business can proliferate. ”The people from Brazil want to pass their produce through here, they were very anxious for the road to be fixed, but the main issue is the bridges, because while they could go through the slush on the road, you cannot traverse the route without the bridges.So we would like some concerted efforts to be put into the rehabilitation of these bridges.Right now business is going on- trade, the National Flour mill is using this route, and sending thousands of bags of flour to brazil per week, and are bringing back other items to sell here.If we do our part, the Brazilians will continue to do their part, if we do the bridges, they will respond favorably.” Gordon said that presently there are about eight or nine ‘very bad’ bridges.With reference to the container wharf facility at Christianburg, which is expected to greatly increase trade from and through Linden, and boost employment, but is yet to be completed, Gordon questioned, “Why invest all that money to build a container wharf facility, when no containers are coming?”He added that apart from the issue of the bridges the Linden/ Lethem road is presently ‘very tortuous”.
