Wereh: Road to be redesigned, reconstructed

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By LUKE KAMA
WORKS Secretary David Wereh has clarified that the Chimbu section of the Highlands Highway, from Chuave to Munde at the border of Western Highlands, will be redesigned and reconstructed using advanced engineering technologies.
During a tour of the highway with Works Minister Michael Nali from Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands to Lae on Monday, Wereh highlighted that the Chimbu section was the worst part of the highway that experienced a lot of problems.
“This is the section that experiences a lot of problems of landslips and landslides; there are waterlogged areas that need advanced engineering designs and under the K3billion Asian Development Bank-funded project to rehabilitate the highway, we want to address these issues once and for all.
“Chimbu will be a separate section that will consume up to almost one third of the K3billion and we will be controlling water, far away from the roads, right up to the water sources.
“It will be a design and construction project to which advanced engineering technology will be applied to construct and once construction is completed, it will solve these issues of water coming onto the road and destroying the tar, creating potholes, the drainage, landslide or landslips will stop.
“We will do it properly and appropriately and I am appealing to the people of Chimbu to accept developments and stop unnecessary claims,” Wereh said.
He said Chimbu was renowned for claims and that practice must be stopped in order for change and developments to take place.
“I can say in the last Highlands Highway rehabilitation project, Chimbu has consumed and burned up a lot of money through claims for compensation.
“We need to stop that.”