Landslides cut off roads to Hela and SHP

By JAMES GUMUNO
ROADS into Hela and parts of the Nipa-Kutubu district in Southern Highlands are cut off along the Poroma and Nipa sections.
The former council president for the Nipa Basin local-level government, David Wesun, and former Nipa-Kutubu district administrator and ExxonMobile community liaison officer Robin Pip said Monday’s powerful earthquake cut off various roads and many sections of the main highway. He said that at least 10 sections of the road and some minor ones between Poroma and near the Nipa and Margarima border were also cut off.
He said that it was “very hard for trucks to transport” heavy machinery from other provinces into the earthquake-devastated parts of Nipa-Kutubu and Hela to restore roads and bridges. Wesun said trucks travelling into Hela when the disaster struck were stranded in Mendi while others dropped off their loads at the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project site or businesshouses in Tari.
He said locals living along the road built bypasses to allow 4WD light vehicles to pass through.
Wesun said villagers were charging each vehicle between K50 and K100 to pass through alternative routes.Pip, from Nipa, said it would take some months to rebuild and restore the road.