Road repairs will take 3 years

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-6-14  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA will need at least three years to finish rebuilding primary roads that link the quake zone to the rest of the country, the Ministry of Transport said.

Reconstruction of all roads, including those linking towns and villages, will take eight years, said He Jianzhong, ministry spokesman.

More detours would be added to the current road network, which will be expanded, he said.

Asphalt or cement roads, if geological conditions permit, would be built to link towns and villages, he added. The ministry also plans to build systems to cope with transport and communication cutoffs.

After an alert on the main Tangjiashan quake lake was canceled on Wednesday, roads linking six towns of Beichuan County, which was threatened by the swollen lake, were fixed by 5pm on Thursday.

However, six out of the total 254 quake-ravaged towns remain cut off by road. Work on these roads was hindered by the quake lake and severe damage to the main road linking Yingxiu and Wenchuan.

As of Tuesday, 19 highways, 159 national and provincial roads and 7,605 rural roads - a total of 47,277km - remain damaged, along with 5,560 bridges and 110 tunnels.