Quake roads "all now reopened"

Source: China Daily | 01-06-2009 10:30

BEIJING, Jan. 6 -- Standing beside the flowing Minjiang River, Li Linxian made his New Year's wish: finishing his hardest-ever mission as soon as possible.

As a construction worker with the Sichuan Road & Bridge Group (SRBG), Li and his 44 workmates have been working on the road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan, the epicenter of the May earthquake, for nearly eight months.

"We have never left the road since the third day after the massive quake destroyed it," Li said, noting this has been the most challenging mission in his roughly two-decade long career.

Yesterday, construction workers in Sichuan's quake-hit regions got the best reward, as the provincial government announced that all the roads destroyed by the May earthquake have reopened.

The 12-km-long road that links the village of Zhitai, located about 15 km north of the epicenter in Wenchuan county, to the No 317 national highway has been reopened, the provincial government said on its website.

That means all the 2,384 affected roads in the province have resumed operation, it said.

According to media reports, the massive quake has affected or destroyed 22,000 km of roads in Sichuan.