Kainantu h’way reopens

 THE highway outside Kainantu, Eastern Highlands, was reopened to traffic at 3pm yesterday after grinding to a halt on Wednesday.

Highlands Highway projects director John Kaio led a Works Department team to the Bane Bridge outside Kainantu yesterday and persuaded landowners to allow traffic to flow.

He assured them that he would investigate and pursue their claims for compensation.

Kaio told The National from the site of the incident that a Post-Courier report and picture was completely wrong, as it happened on the Lae side of the highway and not the Goroka side, and that the front-page picture was not one of the accident.

“I’ve talked to the landowners and I’ve listened to their grievances,” he said.

Kaio said heavy rain had caused the abutments to collapse with a three-metre deep crack appearing on the road,

“The landowners took advantage of this and made demands for compensation,” he said.

“They claimed Government had paid for other parts of the highway but they had never been paid. “They closed the road since yesterday (Wednesday).

“I travelled from Lae with projects officers to the site of the incident.  I asked the landowners to open the road and I will investigate their claims for compensation and pursue. I told them that if they had not been paid, they would be paid.They were happy and opened up the road.”

According to a situation report from Eastern Highlands provincial works manager John Posagu, heavy rain in Kainantu had resulted in severe scouring, creating a crater hole and making it impassable for traffic.

He said the highway was closed to traffic for most of Wednesday.

Posagu recommended providing river training further upstream to divert river from the abutments and backfilling with river gravel to reinstate road for normal traffic flow.

“It is expected that these works commence immediately in the next few days from now,” he said,