Broken part puts Swing Bridge up the creek

If you tried to use to the Swing Bridge on Wednesday evening you were one of many who were shocked to see that the bridge had gotten stuck in the middle of the Belize River. The fault was fixed within hours, but as News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports, the problem highlights just how much strain the structure is under.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Just after six on Wednesday night, the Belize City Swing Bridge, which connects the north side of the city to the south, had to be closed for more five hours so maintenance crews could conduct emergency repair. Every evening the bridge is manually swung to allow boats to pass, but this time, a part in the connecting shaft that allows the bridge to swing separated and fell in between the rotating gears.

Colwin Flowers, City Administrator

“A tension bar that holds a gear in place that turns the larger ring gear broke away. It broke away because of fatigue. The tension and compression that is experience each time you turn that bridge. That is normal when you deal with steel, it does have a fatigue point, corrosion is not a problem there.”

It was not until eleven last night that city council workers repaired the problem and motorists were allowed to go over the bridge. The Belize City Swing Bridge dates back to the early 1900s and it is a favourite tourist attraction. According to city administrator, Colwin Flowers, because the bridge’s mechanism is old, there will be problems from time to time.

Colwin Flowers

“There will be problems. There are steel members that do become fatigued. For example, there is a handle that is turned by a great deal of people, there is a shaft that transmits the turning movement down to a set of gears, that shaft is constantly under torsion or stress and given a number of repetitions, maybe perhaps, ten or fifteen years from now, that shaft will become fatigued too. So we cannot guarantee anything in that case.”

The Belize City Council says the bridge is frequently inspected to ensure that everything is running smoothly. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

According to the City Council, to ensure that the fault does not happen again, there are plans to weld the bar to the connection shaft. That work is scheduled to take place in the near future.