AAP
Torrential rain in Papua New Guinea has caused part
of the main freeway in the nation's capital to collapse.
The section gave way after Port Moresby was
bombarded by a fierce electrical storm and saturated by 83.2 millimetres of
rain.
Authorities say there are no reports of injuries.
Measuring the length of about two cars and cutting
across four lanes of Spring Garden Road - one of two main links between Port
Moresby's central business district and outlying suburbs - the road collapsed
late on Monday night.
"It is the nature of the rain," said
National Municipal Authority deputy manager for engineering, Simon Vai.
"It caused the corrugated iron (drains) to
collapse.
"We were addressing the issue - it already fell
on one side - when it happened."
Last week workmen had dug up a large section of the
road to carry out repairs, he said, closing one lane.
The hole, which cuts across four lanes, is expected
to take up to three weeks to fix.
Vai said a temporary bridge is being considered so
traffic can resume.
While there were no reported injuries from last
night's deluge, people living near the road collapse said debris blocked a
drainage pipe leading to their community, causing floods.
"The whole culvert from the breakaway part of
the road is blocked," said one resident who said his name was Benny.
"I have been in Port Moresby since 1975 and
this was the worst flooding I have seen, because of that blockage."
The National Weather Service, however, does not rate
last night's deluge as one of Port Moresby's worst.
The rainfall record was set in 1946, when 327.4
millimetres soaked the city.
The second largest deluge was 305.4mm in May 11,
1994.
But Monday's relatively tame amount of rain still
caused havoc.
National Weather Service Assistant director Kasis
Inape says Port Moresby only has one functioning main-line drainage system that
diverts most of deluge from rainfall through the suburb of Gordon's.
"Last night's rain wasn't serious but it can
be, especially the flooding because of the drainage," he told AAP.
"At the moment, we only have that one (at
Gordon's).
Engineers responsible for road constructions in the city need to seriously consider the city's current road system and it's problems & fix. At the moment it is a nightmare for motorists. We need to see taxpayers money also being put into these sort of issues in the country.
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