Work on Busu bridge to be completed today, official says

A WORKS Department official says the Busu bridge which allows access to Boana station in Nawaeb will be re-open today before the issue of writs tomorrow.
Principal technical adviser Felix Ainri attached with Morobe’s Disaster and Emergency projects has been overseeing the repairs on the bridge which collapsed on Dec 19.
Ainri said the aim was to get the bridge in useable condition before May 12 so candidates for the Nawaeb seat could nominate at the district headquarters in Boana.
He said work, which was funded by the district development authority (DDA) with K300,000, was supposed to be completed last weekend but progress was delayed by a huge boulder that rolled downhill blocking one end of the bridge, following rains on Friday.
“Our excavator cannot move a boulder of this size so we will have to do a by-pass just to allow access to Boana station for nominations. We’re now looking at sub-structure work and then on to the super-structure where we’ll remove two panels from the end-bay to reduce the bridge length and align the structure to stabilise it,” he said.
He added that local youths had assisted by helping fill 11 stone baskets.
“We’ve engaged youth from villages within the project vicinity to carry stones from the riverbed up to the project area. Youths are rotated every three-days with a pay of K150,” he said.
He added that the construction staff of 35 were locals and were earning double the normal labour rates.
District administrator James Niapukali said a new bridge had been recommended to be built further downstream and a site had been scoped out and work on it would cost about K3million.