Government to manage road system

IMPROVING and enhancing the government’s technical capacity to build high quality roads and bridges in Papua New Guinea remains a key pillar of any infrastructure projects, says Works secretary David Wereh.
Wereh said this at Government House in Port Moresby yesterday when signing a K33 million contract with a road management consultant company to independently manage a number of important road and bridge infrastructure projects in the country.
The contract was awarded to Renardet S.A. Consulting Engineers of Switzerland for a period of two years.
They will carry out projects, some of which are currently in progress, and other upcoming projects.
They include the rehabilitation of the Hiritano Highway leading into Gulf, the Ramu-Madang Highway and Bogia highway which are funded by the World Bank and include bridge replacement projects.
“The contractor Renardet S.A. Consulting Engineers took over from Cardon, who was previously performing the tasks,” Wereh said.
“This is critical to our ambitions and visions of delivering quality road and bridge infrastructures.
“To achieve quality, we must have the right team in place and as such, these consultants will independently manage and supervise the roads that are being undertaken by contractors on behalf of the Works department and the government.
“So we have an independent team who can hold the contractors to account for the quality and the standard they are expected to deliver and that is very important.”
Wereh said Renardet S.A. Consulting Engineers would not only manage the engineering and technical aspects of the projects but the financial compliance and other aspects as well.
“Due to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events, coupled with increased traffic demands and need for road accessibility, our system of managing road contracts has also changed.
“We have now put in place independent consultants to manage road and bridge infrastructure projects to assist contractors and the government to deliver quality roads and bridges.”