The continuous rain in Eastern Highlands has forced a gaping hole to appear from a crack on the one-lane 60-metre bridge at Bena last night.
The bridge is located about 20km away from the provincial capital, Goroka.
This has made people stranded and forced all transport service to Goroka and rest of highlands to a hold as of early hours this morning.
A local told Loop PNG that, “a visit to the site this morning saw line of PMV buses and trucks lining either side of the bridge for about 3km.
“Some PMVs off-loaded their passengers on the road side with bags of fresh vegetables intended for Lae and Madang.
“Police officers from Goroka attended to the scene early this morning to control any situation that may arise, but already villagers were collecting fees from passengers travelling in from Lae, Kainantu and Henganofi travelling into Goroka who have to walk across the bridge.
The number of villages and travelling passengers on either side of the bridge has increased to around 500 as if people were turning up to watch a rugby match. Road side markets just next to the bridge were set up selling cigarettes, betelnut (buai) and food items to the stranded passengers and visitors to the site.