Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) continues to maintain important public infrastructure along the Lagaip-Porgera section of the Highlands Highway, particularly in Porgera, Enga Province.
This week the Porgera miner carried out maintenance work on the Aipulungu Bridge – one of the two bridges that connect Paiam Township to Porgera Station and the Porgera Gold Mine.
The PJV roadworks team on February 23rd removed the damaged bridge deck planks on the Bailey Double Single Reinforced – 7 Bay bridge, removed damaged stringers, and placed new stringers followed by the new deck planks before reopening the bridge to motorists.
Senior Engineer Josiah Kunai said the maintenance work was carried out after an inspection of the bridge by the PJV team.
Two months’ prior, the team had fixed a failure of the stringers on this same bridge.
PJV engaged local contractors to assist with the maintenance work.
Pepe Contractors were engaged to control motorists and pedestrians while Niera Ipisakale, another local contractor, was hired for the use of its trucks and other equipment.
“Since the replacement of the failed stringers and deck planks on one of the bays, PJV has since replaced a total of 20 bridge stringers and 24 deck planks on a total of 4 bays,” Kunai said.
There was a general appreciation from motorists and members of the public that PJV was doing some maintenance work on the bridge.
(The PJV Community Projects team working on the Aipulungu Bridge)