The people of Guantánamo are in danger of being cut off

CubitaNOW write ~ Saturday, May 6, 2023

The bridge has been awaiting repair for the past six years in the municipality of Maisey, while resources are spent each hurricane season to repair a serious speed bump that would allow a connection to that eastern region.

The local newspaper beat And review the oblivion of that site.

“Six years and seven months seems too long for the bridge over the Caleta River, in the commune of the municipality of Maisi, to be repaired,” the paper explained in an apparent alert to the authorities.

In an article by this medium, they explain that “the aforementioned footbridge, 72 meters long, was built in 2005 with the aim of maintaining land communication with the easternmost Cuban municipalities, sometimes affected by torrential floods.”

But in 2016, the connection was completely broken: “The waves of the sea, caused by the passage of Hurricane Matthew through that site, in October 2016, undermined the eastern head of the bridge, thus preventing passage through it,” he notes. memo.

In this regard, they explain, to prevent the site from becoming isolated, they built a “temporary diversion or speed bump, which has since been preserved, although on several occasions damaged by the waves of the Caribbean Sea, and then rebuilt, with consequent outlay of resources.”

But it will be seven years since “temporary” construction became the official course. The Regional Highway Center told journalist Jorge Luis Merencio Cauten that there was no cement to carry out the repairs.

“It seems that the scarcity of this construction resource is increasing at present, so much so that this entity has not received even a single ton of the 190 approved by the Ministry of Economy and Planning for this year,” said Merencio Cautin.

Before the start of the rainy season, the reporter fears the worst: “The Caleta Bridge is strategically important for the province and especially for Mési and even for Baracoa: in the event of a traffic interruption across the La Farola Bridge (something possible due to landslides and rocks caused by the rains in this section) the alternative would be the overland link between Guantanamo and Baracoa is the Cajobabo-La Maquina route. But, what would happen if, after the rainy season had begun, the Caleta River swelled and destroyed the diversion?

The journalist recalls a failed repair attempt “By 2021 there was an attempt to repair the footbridge, but due to a lack of cement, only part of the foundation of the eastern abutment was carried out. Meanwhile, the salinity of the area is corroding the exposed iron, which if continued may require demolition What has been done,” he warns.

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