BEIJING - ROADS damaged or destroyed in the massive May earthquake in China's Sichuan province have now all been reopened, state media reported on Tuesday.
Construction crews restored the 2,384 highways and roads affected after the May 12 quake that killed 70,000 people and left an additional 18,000 missing and presumed dead, the official China Daily said.
The massive 7.9-magnitude quake affected an estimated 13,700 miles (22,000 kilometres) of roads in Sichuan, many of them smaller mountainous passes, the newspaper said.
The provincial government plans to focus on keeping all roads in the disaster area open and accelerate reconstruction of basic transportation facilities, it said.
The 51-mile (82-kilometre) road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan, the epicenter of the quake, was almost completely destroyed by the temblor and subsequent landslides. Until it was reopened, travelers, including rescue and medical teams, had to take a detour that was eight times as long.
The road-repair teams faced constant challenges in the last seven months as aftershocks and landslides posed a danger to construction workers and their equipment, the newspaper said. -- AP
