Sections of the Highlands Highway in Southern Highlands have seen much needed maintenance and development in recent times.
The major road works have been undertaken by local contractors.
Among them, Construct Oceanic Limited has seen 80 percent of the road works completed.
The total costs for all projects stands close to K17 million, and for the first time in the province, the Contractor will be using a special Stabilizing Machine to prevent constant road deterioration.
Access to improved roads in Mendi town and sections of the highlands highway in Southern Highlands have improved with support from the Provincial government.
Some of the local contractors include Construct Oceanic Limited, Covec PNG, R & Sons, CivPAC and Wild Cat Construction have improved and are working to maintain the roads to national highway standards leading into the PNG LNG Project sites near Hela Province.
Construct Oceanic Limited is one of the local Construction companies from the area. The company has been awarded various contracts in Mendi which includes the first phase of a 40 kilometre stretch of road from Kiburu to Poroman.
There are four stages in the process and the first stage of 6.5 kilometres from Sumia to Kagua junction costs K11. 8 million. This includes 10 metres of proper drainage, sealing and proper footpaths.
Construct Oceanic will be using a Stabilizing Machine to improve all roads as Project Manager, Terril O’Brien, explains.
An aerial view of the projects clearly shows the progress of the work. This includes Construct Oceanic’s completed road works worth K5 million in Ialibu Town with the remaining K5 million funding component still pending .
It has also completed road works that were allegedly abandoned by a contractor in 2010 after receiving K5 million to do the Magani Bridge to Teten Wasil Road.
Building the local capacity is one of the underlying reasons to engaging local contractors and as such, the Provincial Government has awarded contracts to Construct Oceanic Limited among others including Covec PNG doing the K250 million Mendi to Kandep road, while R & Sons maintaining the Ialibu – Kumbane a K12 million road works.
CivPAC, is working on the Ialibu to Kagua roads worth K50 million while K5 million has seen major road improvements in Pangia township.
Martin Pat, the Provincial Disaster Coordinator, spoke highly about the developments in the province.
The contractors hope to complete all road works on scheduled time with consistent funding provided, in order build their capacity to move forward.
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