Dept spends K40mil to repair roads damaged by earthquake

By LUKE KAMA
CLOSE to K40 million has been spent to restore accessibility of the road network damaged by the Feb 26 earthquake in Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands, Works Secretary David Wereh says.
Wereh, who is also a member of the disaster and emergency committee headed by emergency controller Dr William Hamblin, told The National yesterday that in addition was a combined input of more than 900 man-power hours to clear more than 300km of roads in the three provinces hit by the earthquake.
“It was not an easy task to get all the damaged sections fixed and clear the blockages to restore full accessibility when the disaster struck,” Hamblin said.
“Many sections of the roads were being severely damaged and it was indeed a very huge task.
“But I commend our officers and engineers and technical people from the Works Department, the contractors, development partners and the oil and gas operating companies like Oil Search Limited, ExxonMobil and not forgetting the support of our local communities to ensure some part of the roads were repaired.”
Wereh said the last section of the road that was attended to, with full accessibility being restored, was the road from Poroma to Moro.
“The road from Poroma to Moro was severely damaged because it is within and in close proximity to the epicentre of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake,” Wereh said.
“That’s why it has taken us a while to get it fixed and I am pleased to say that full accessibility of roads in Hela, Enga and Southern Highlands were restored following the completion of temporarily restoration works for Poroma to Moro road last Friday.”
He said temporary restoration work had cost around K40 million, ExxonMobil had spent around K7 million under its tax credit scheme to get some sections of the roads leading into the projects sites fixed.
Wereh said the Works Department, which was an integral part of the Western, Enga, Southern Highlands and Hela restoration authority, was looking at working with development partners and their consultants to come up with a design for permanent work that could withstand disaster and the effects of climate change.