MOP to invest US$19mn in Guayas-Chimborazo hwy

Ecuador's public works ministry ( MOP) will invest US$19mn in rehabilitation of the Bucay-Pallatanga highway, connecting Guayas and Chimborazo provinces, local press reported Chimborazo governor Carlos Puente as saying. MOP has designed a project to rehabilitate the 105km highway, most recently damaged by a landslide in August. "The road cannot take any more damage and must be reconstructed with the state's 2007 general budget," Puente said. MOP has met officials from the ministry of economy and finance to try to obtain the funds needed to push the works forward and carry them out this year, MOP official Jorge Núñez was quoted as saying. The government has spent a small amount on repairs to allow traffic back onto the highway. The Bucay-Pallatanga expressway is built over the Puná-Pallatanga-Riobamba geological fault, which affects the provinces of Chimborazo, Cañar, Azuay and El Oro and much of the damage to roads in the region is blamed on seismic activity, as well as traffic use.