Thousands of commuters who travel through the South Eastern parts of Trinidad will find their journey a little smoother and a bit quicker as the Ministry of Works officially opened another bridge in the Guayaguayare area on Monday.
On time and within budget is how Minister of Works and Transport, Rohan Sinanan, described the work on the multi-million dollar South Trinidad bridge project he officially opened on Monday.
“It’s a bridge that took about eight months here in Guayaguayare. The cost was $7.8 million. It was completed within budget and, as I said, within an eight-month period. The contractor was GM, General Earth Movers.”
The Minister noted 2024 had been a busy year for the Ministry’s Bridges Programme.
“This bridge would have brought us close to about 60 or 65 bridges in total. We do have a bridge programme with 92 bridges and we would have, over the last couple of years, at different stages, we have over 65 bridges either completed or ongoing work.”
He acknowledged that in some areas there are still wooden bridges.
“The idea is to ensure that all the bridges in Trinidad, on a phased basis, will be taken care of. Some of the bridges we have in Trinidad are about 100 years old, and there are several challenges. One is the state of the bridge, and the other major concern we have is, the capacity of the bridge, based on the volume of rainfall, the amount of water we’re getting now.”
However, Minister Sinanan said the Ministry aims to address all the bridges in the country and completely eradicate all the wooden bridges.