Firm fixes collapsed bridge

 By ZACHERY PER

WORKMEN from Woresi Brothers Engineering are working around the clock to repair the Lapeka Bailey Bridge which collapsed last week.

Once completed, it should restore normal traffic flow into the Unggai area along the newly upgraded Kamaliki-Movi-Chuave road.

Works Department supervisors at the site were also confident that a steel bridge at Yabiyufa would be completed soon.

The two bridges were damaged last week by the floods.

“The 17m Lapeka Bailey bridge and the 15m Yabiyufa steel girder bridge between Goroka and the Unggai mountains are on schedule to be completed,”said one of the workmen who declined to be named.

Meanwhile,the Asian Development Bank Highlands regional management group director  Ian Barr and Eastern Highlands provincial works manager Moses Laim who visited the bridges last week Wednesday said the repairs should be completed soon.

The company said repairs to the bridge was not in the initial roads contract but since it was an emergency situation, they had to attend to it quickly.

The Kamaliki-Movi road is an alternate route to on the highway to the landslide-prone Daulo and Watabung sections.

The company was contracted to upgrade and seal the 16km from Kamaliki to Bekuvia. They have completed 12km already.