Road works begin in Lae

By ELLEN TIAMU
THE people of Lae will soon enjoy better roads as acting Prime Minister Sam Abal, accompanied by Treasury Minister Peter O’Neill, handed over cheques to four construction companies for concrete road works to begin.
Abal said it was important that he personally came to show support as Lae was the second largest city in the country and he wanted to see an end to potholes in the industrial city.
He stressed that quality must be of top priority when dealing with projects that the government put millions of kina into.  
“We want to see that the issue of potholes in Lae put to rest and, most importantly, for contractors working on various selected sections of the Lae roads, quality should be of paramount importance,” he stressed. 
“The amount of money spent must be reflected in the projects being carried out as for years millions had been spent but the same roads are being re-constructed and maintained over and over again. Contractors should also go for quality and not at just completing a job,” Abal said.
He said 2011 was implementation year for the government and it was already getting the ball rolling “and we want to work in close consultation with Morobe government and all other provinces although we can’t promise everything”.
Four companies awarded contracts to cement the roads and handed their cheques at the Lae International Hotel were R & Sons Construction, Shorncliffe PNG Ltd, FTM Construction and Cameron Construction Ltd.
R & Sons will upgrade the road between Bugandi junction and Snack Bar at a cost of about K9 million while Shorncliffe will commence work on the stretch between the Angau roundabout to Tusa Medical centre, including 12th Street at a cost of K9.8 million.
FTM was awarded K9.1 million to carry out road work on the Milfordhaven to Huon Road and onto Markham Junction while Cameron Construction received K9.8 million for stretch between Coronation Drive, Central Bus Stop and 6th, 8th and 9th streets.