The minister of Roads and Bridges has told Shandong Hi-Speed to construct 11 bridges and 35 box culverts to prevent Juba-Rumbek highway from being washed away heavy rains again.
In May last year, heavy rains and floods destroyed the tarmac on parts of the superhighway just after the beginning of its construction.
The layers of gravel under the asphalt were reported to be weak and easily washed off by water.
On Tuesday, a team headed up by Minister Simon Mijok visited the highway to assess its progress.
Officials from the Ministry of Roads and Bridges on Tuesday visited the Juba-Rumbek highway [28km away from Juba] to assess the road works | Credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio #SouthSudan pic.twitter.com/3ezpHFMgcV
— Eye Radio (@EyeRadioJuba) February 17, 2021
“The company has been given a commencement to start fixing what went wrong and this is what we came to inspect,” Mijok told reporters at the site.
Shandong Hi-speed, which is in-charge of the construction, also admitted that the damage was caused by overflowing water which occurred at a section with a length of 80 meters, and another section with a length of 300 meters.
The government then moved to suspend the road works until the company developed a new design for the highway.
Mijok stated that his ministry directed the company to ensure that the first phase of the project is accomplished as soon as possible.
“The contractor is directed to move on the road very aggressively because we are behind time,” he continued.
He wants the road works to commence on the other sections: Terekeka-Mingkaman, Mingkaman-Yirol and Yirol-Rumbek.
“These four sections, we want to see all the activities taking place so that we can realize the road on time,” he added.
The Shandong Hi-Speed company embarked on the 700 million-dollar project in 2019 after being allocated crude oil to construct the Juba – Terekeka – Yirol – Rumbek road project
The 400-kilometer highway is expected to end in Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State.