The build up of traffic on and around the Demerara Harbour Bridge has long been a problem with vehicles found lining up early in the morning and late in the afternoons trying to get to and from their various destinations.
What also contributed to this build up was the fact that for the past decade, retractions of the bridge have only been done during the day. This is a great inconvenience to vehicles who need to get to either side of the river at a specific time or even during an emergency. As such measures have been put in place to deal with the traffic congestion. Last evening for the first time in 10 years, the Demerara Harbour Bridge was scheduled to retract at 1:00 hrs, shortly after which a fuel boat was set to make its way upriver to Providence.
It is also the intention of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Company to lessen the retraction time of the bridge from one and a half hour to just one hour. It is not final that all day openings will be stopped but with the implementation of the night openings, it will be minimized.
