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.