Saturday, August 29 2009

WITH questions still hanging over just who is responsible for the collapse of the Balandra bridge last week, the Acting Transport Commissioner Ruben Cato yesterday said the track crane involved in that incident did not have to be licensed in order to drive over the bridge.

The bridge collapsed on August 22 after a track crane, with a capacity to carry 50 tonnes and an estimated tare weight of 15 tonnes, drove over it. In the wake of the incident, which left thousands stranded, the Ministry of Works and Transport noted that it was not clear whether or not the track crane was licenced to drive on the Toco Main Road leading to the bridge and over the bridge itself.

But speaking with Newsday after a Training and Logistics breakfast forum on safety at the Marriot Courtyard Hotel, Port-of-Spain, Cato yesterday noted that track cranes do not have to be licenced to drive over public roads. He said the owners of such vehicles must, instead, seek permission from the Ministry of Works and Transport.

“Those cranes are actually construction equipment so they are not required to be licenced,” Cato said. “A track crane is not for use on public roads, it may cross the roads, but they are not meant to drive on public roads. You don’t need a licence to cross the road or cross a bridge. What you need is permission from a technical officer in the Ministry of Works and Transport to cross a road or to cross a bridge.”

“I don’t know what kind of contract was set up but that contractor should have been sure that (they) got permission to cross the bridge,” Cato said.

Cato said he was not concerned about the standard of safety of the physical infrastructure in light of recent bridge collapses because, in his view, these were one-off incidents.

“It’s not common,” he said.