THE BRIDGE

SEPT. FLOODING 2008

CONSTRUCTION AUG. 2009

NEARING COMPLETION

Finally after almost eleven months the National Route #1 Bridge in Montrouis is nearing completion. The local gossip says it will be ready for traffic sometime in Sept. If you read the GAP newsletters you know that last Summer's hurricanes and flooding took out the center support of the old bridge making it unsafe for vehicles to use. At that time Montrouis only had one bridge crossing the river. This required that all transportation of people and cargo had to stop on the East and West sides cross by foot and all cargo unloaded carried across by porters and reloaded.

Eventually a bridge was established out near the the ocean where the old railroad crossed the river though this was a tortuous detour it once again allowed vehicles to cross the river. Sometime early this year the old bridge was removed and in April construction started on the new replacement bridge which is now nearing completion. The blessing from all of this is that now Montrouis will have two routes across the the river which is is a rarity in the Haiti transportation network.

Another transportation blessing is that the new highway though not completely finished from Port au Prince to Montrouis is much improved. Paving across the worst areas now allows quick, smooth and dust free travel for our vehicles that go back and forth every week. This is the best the road has been in my ten years of work in Haiti. In God's love , steve