Kiunga-Tabubil Highway

Kiunga-Tabubil Highway
Route information
Maintained by Ok Tedi Mining Limited
Length	137 km (85 mi)
Major junctions
North end	Ok Tedi Mine, Western Province
South end	Kiunga, Western Province
Location
Country	Papua New Guinea
Major cities	Tabubil, Ningerum
Highway system
Transport in Papua New Guinea

The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway is an all-weather gravel road that runs from the river port town of Kiunga through Ningerum and Tabubil to the Ok Tedi Mine site, in the remote North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. The road is around 137 kilometres (85 mi) long, but this changes as sections are rehashed.

Currently the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway is being sealed and as of 17th December 2024 the road is sealed from Kiunga Town to KM 25.

The "highway" was built in the early 1980s. It is maintained by Ok Tedi Mining Limited, who are the greatest beneficiaries of the road. The highway, for the most part, runs parallel with the Ok Tedi River, which is an incredibly fast moving and volatile river since it is a high-volume waterway resting on a sand bank. Parts of the highway are often consumed by the river and need to be rebuilt. The cost of maintaining this road is K1.5 million a year, in a region where people have an average annual income of about K50 a year. In 2019 it was announced that the highway would be sealed over three years by OTML under the government tax credit scheme at an estimated cost of K100 million.^[1]

There is a copper slurry pipeline running along the full length of the road from the mine site north of Tabubil down to Bige.

The full length of the road was first cycled in 2013 by Luke Jackson, Dylan Carroll, Michael Hayen and Mikel Wolters.

Kiunga, with the Fly River in the foreground, right, Ningerum station, Tabubil and the Ok Tedi River shown top left/left. The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway runs throughout the centre of this image.

References

1. Loop PNG July 24, 2019 http://www.looppng.com/business/tabubil-kiunga-highway-be-sealed-85877