Road workers continue repairing quake-damaged roads

Transport authorities are doing their best to get quake-damaged roads in Sichuan Province repaired. This is crucial to the delivery of relief materials.

This is the nearest road linking Chengdu to Wenchuan, epicenter of the quake. Workers are repairing the last 8.5 kilometers. Workers face great difficulties in the mountain areas. Boulders litter the roads.

Another problem is barrier lakes. And rubble may fall at any time. Workers have to blast the side of the mountain to make a narrow path.

Sun Yun, President of Sichuan Road & Bridge Co., Ltd. said "We used explosions on the vertical rock face to create an access. Workers are digging to make it convenient to pass."

Many bridges were also severely damaged. Some temporary bridges have been built to deliver relief materials and get reconstruction going.

The rainy season brings other problems besides the danger of cave-ins from tremors and loose rock formations. A team of workers are on standby to keep the roads open.

So far, all but 6 of 254 roads in the quake zone have been repaired.