Madang contractor ships in gravel chips

National, Normal

THE boom in road projects, sponsored by the government and other development partners nationwide, is putting pressure on the supply of raw materials such as rocks and crushed gravel chips that are required for road sealing.
Across the country, contractors were being forced to cart rocks, gravel and crushed materials for long distances due to landowner disputes at quarries and lack of appropriate materials near the project sites.
Such a situation was experienced in Madang where Shorncliffe workers were using one gravel crusher at Naru River along the Madang-Ramu Highway for several road projects that were either underway or about to begin.
Consequently, one road contractor decided to ship crushed gravel chips by sea from Lae late last week.
R&Sons Constructions Ltd, who is upgrading and sealing the 4-Mile to Mawan Road in Madang, became the first to ship the materials by sea when it took delivery of 210 tonnes of crushed gravel chips from Boinamo Construction in Lae.
The Lutheran Shipping-owned barge, mv Sir Zibang, brought the chips into the company’s Madang port last Thursday evening.
R&Sons then engaged a fleet of large dump trucks to shift the materials from the barge to the project site in the Amele area of Madang district last Friday.
The company had done so after learning that their order at the Naru River crusher was in a queue with the other contractors, and they did not want to waste any more time waiting.
The delivery would now enable R&Sons to resume the sealing work.