The Soesdyke-Linden Highway is a 2-lane highway that runs between

Soesdyke Soesdyke is a village in the Demerara-Mahaica Region (Region 4), Guyana, located between the Demerara River and the East Bank Public Road. Soesdyke is located just after the village called Den Heuvel (Coverden) if you are coming from Georgetown, w ...

and Linden in

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. The

East Bank Public Road East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

connects Soesdyke with Georgetown.

Construction

The Soesdyke-Linden highway was constructed between 1966 and 1968 by B.B. Mc. Cormick & Sons. It cost approximately US$17 million to build. The highway was officially opened in 1969. The Soesdyke-Linden Highway was constructed as one phase of a highway connecting Georgetown with Lethem. A feasibility study for such a highway was done by a US consulting firm, Metcalf and Eddy, in 1961.

Continuing work

The highway was rehabilitated in 1997–1999 with funding from the

Caribbean Development Bank The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is a financial institution that helps Caribbean nations finance social and economic programs in its member countries. CDB was established by an Agreement signed on October 18, 1969, in Kingston, Jamaica, and ent ...

. The repair works were carried out by a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

company called Seereeram Brothers Ltd at a cost of US$6,575,000. The repair works included: overlaying the stretch between Soesdyke and

Kuru Kururu Kuru may refer to: Anthropology and history * Kuru (disease), a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy associated with the cannibalistic funeral practices of the Fore people * Kuru (mythology), part of Meithei mythology * Kuru Kingdom, ...

with

Asphalt concrete Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...

and sealing the rest of the road with a thin coat of asphalt and fine aggregate. The super structures of the bridges, which were of greenheart, were reconstructed with

Reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

to a higher standard of live load. The highway greatly improved development of the town of Linden, which was previously accessed by boat via the

Demerara River The Demerara River is a river in eastern Guyana that rises in the central rainforests of the country and flows to the north for 346 kilometres until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. Georgetown, Guyana's largest seaport and capital, is situated o ...

. Accidents are common, the highway is unlit and lacks regular maintenance.

References

Road transport in Guyana {{Guyana-geo-stub