Quake roads "all now reopened"

The government also said it will continue focusing on road maintenance in the future.

Known as the eastern route, the 82-km road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan was almost totally destroyed by the quake and subsequent landslides. The 710-km western route via Ya'an, which provided access for rescue and medical teams, suffered less damage.

"The detour is eight times longer than the eastern route," Li said.

Working alongside the Minjiang River, the team has been constantly hampered by heavy rains and aftershocks, which on May 14 - the first day they got there - "happened almost once a minute", he said.

More than 3,000 workers from SRBG have led the way in rebuilding the province's shattered road network after the quake. Thanks to their hard work, the road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan was clearly and finally reopened in early September.

Since then, Li's team started the maintenance work.

Currently, they are on their last task in the whole mission: rebuilding an 84-m-long bridge linking a protruded rock and a village in which the team is now based. Without a bridge, vehicles will have to detour by encircling the steep rock in a valley of the Minjiang River.

"We hoped to finish the bridge before the Chinese New Year, but we know it is impossible now," Li said, blaming the delays on the forbidding terrain.

Their construction site is located in the village of Suopo, about 30 km to the south of Wenchuan county.

"Suopo" means "sliding slope" in the Sichuan dialect, and Li's team has been at constant risk from falling rocks, aftershocks and landslides, since they got there in mid-September.