Yalu River Bridge Photo: Facebook / Roberts M Rakaipane
An old bridge has been brought back to use in Lae in Papua New Guinea after the Yalu River Bridge was destroyed by flooding late last week.
Critical Morobe bridge replaced 'temporarily' after flooding
There has been severe rain across Morobe for weeks and RNZ Pacific's correspondent in PNG, Scott Waide, said there is more to come, though the sun came out on Tuesday.
"It's been an unusual three, four months. We've had an unprecedented amount of rain, and it's affected the bridges and the roads," he said.
The Post-Courier newspaper has reported there have been three deaths due to the heavy rain, with two people caught by a landslide and one person washed away.
Waide said the road is the critical link to the regional airport at Nadzab, and it was very quiet there for several days.
"So, traffic has been affected. That portion of the bridge has broken off altogether as of [Monday] night. So works crews have been working on it for the last three days, and 10 o'clock [Monday] night, they got access fixed so trucks can cross.
"But there's also this remaining risk of heavy rains, because it's still raining. We've been lucky to have just one good day of sunshine [Tuesday]."
But now a decommissioned bridge has been brought back into temporary use, while a new bridge, part of a highway widening, is completed.
Waide said the road that connects to the bridge is part of ongoing roadwork, so the bridge is due to be replaced anyway, but it is the only one that gives access to the airport.
"It's affected food supply and the ability of people to bring food into the city to sell at their markets.
"There's also been instances where the cost of services and the cost of goods have increased temporarily, as is usually the cases when transport is disrupted," he said.