Highlands Highway

It connects several major cities and is vital for the movement of people and goods between the populous Highlands region and the coast.

For most of its length the Highlands Highway is no more than a single carriageway two-lane road that is often hindered by potholes and land slips.

It is also notorious, particularly in the Highlands region, for being the place of numerous armed hold-ups and robberies committed by local bandits called raskols.

The Porgera Gold Mine (PJV) is a major user of the Highlands Highway for transport of all its consumables and equipment from Lae port, and consequently spends an enormous amount of time and money on maintaining the road – most often the portion from Mt Hagen to Porgera – upgrading cuttings, bridges and culverts.

The most serious of these destroyed a 150-metre section of the highway at Gera village, 10 km east of Kundiawa, on 11 April; this cut off the upper Highlands provinces from all road transport.