Highway weighing station first to go

 By PISAI GUMAR

INITIAL work on the Lae-Nadzab four-lane highway has started with the National Road Authority paving the way to demolish its 9-Mile weighing station.

Work started after feasibility studies, evaluation of road works and a survey of the construction work by the China Railway Engineering which was still in progress.

The next service providers in line to relocate are PNG Power Ltd, Water PNG and Telikom PNG, which will have to reposition power posts, service lines, communication towers and cables, water mains and pipes.

The Works Department senior project officer on the site said the  relocation would include companies and settlers who had structures built within the 20-metre corridor to the road.

He will meet with corridor communities Yalu, Munum, Nasuapum and Gabsongkeg and their leaders and landowners today. 

“Obviously, it is our responsibility as government agencies to conduct awareness to ensure landowners, settlers or communities and leaders along the Lae-Nadzab corridor are educated to understand the impacts,” he said.

“We need to ensure they understand what will be happening, how it will be executed and how they will be involved or helped.”

He said the relocation exercise needed to end before the end of the year and construction work to begin in early January.

He encouraged trucking companies to give views on the four-lane road and the re-development of the Highlands Highway.