Cambodian road set for boom

Cambodian road set for boom

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuter): The treacherous potholes are gone and the once-vital link between Cambodia's capital and its deep sea port looks set for a revival.

Contractors are putting the finishing touches to a $30 million U.S.-funded repair job on the battered and broken highway linking Phnom Penh with this port city.

"There were sections where pavement was completely gone and the road was almost impassable with treacherous potholes. There were bridges which were totally out, where spans were down," said Norman Loeffler, project manager with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which sponsored the project.

Passenger and trade traffic is expected to swell because of the repair project, which began in late 1994.

"This is the lifeline for Sihanoukville as well as Phnom Penh because Sihanoukville is a port city," Sihanoukville Governor Thoam Bun Sron said.

The governor said good communications links were crucial if the port and area were to develop both as a tourist destination and as an industrial zone serving the rest of the country.

He stressed this infrastructure was vital for attracting overseas funds, saying foreign investors "look into road and railway links and how Sihanoukville is linked to the capital city to see how their goods can be transported."

Contractors have resurfaced 211 km (132 miles) of road with a high quality asphalt-concrete mix and are close to restoring the highway to the shape it was in when opened in 1959 with funding from the U.S. Eisenhower administration.

Thoam Bun Sron, in an interview with Reuters during a recent visit here, said the improvements along Highway Four were already paying dividends with more tourist arrivals, but he was unable to provide exact figures.

Loeffler said the extensive repair work had ensured that Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville were linked by one of the only "high- quality national routes in Cambodia".

He said work on all but one bridge was finished by the end of May. Nine of 39 bridges needed major surgery, including five that were rebuilt, while the remaining 30 required only minor repairs, he said.

"Now the road has a seven metres (23 feet) width with pavement and the shoulders are 1.5 to two metres (five to 6.5 feet) wide," Leoffler told Reuters.

The cash-strapped Cambodian government has welcomed the rehabilitation as a major contribution to its nationwide reconstruction plan after more than two decades of strife.

"Road number four is a very vital road. Cambodia has two main ports, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh, but the port in Sihanoukville is more strategic because in Phnom Penh we rely on the Mekong River which goes through another country," said Public Works and Transport Secretary of State Tram Iv Tek.

"It's an important economic artery for Cambodia and when the economy has developed more there will be more exports, which need to be transported to the seaport."

Pwee Kong Teck, director of the Cambodia Brewery Ltd, which produces Angkor beer in the southern port city, said road rehabilitation had helped his company's business.