A highway built at a cost of 8.75 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion) in northwestern Gansu Province showed signs of cracks and subsiding again one year after a major overhaul.
 

Tianding Highway has remained opened this summer as repairs have been made, officials said. Highway authorities said problems were caused by heavy downpours rather than poor quality construction, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.
 

The highway was forced to close for repair in July 2011, less than two months after it opened, due to cracks and potholes in the pavement.
 

Local officials blamed the problem on lax quality control during construction and bad weather, and the contractor was ordered to pay for the 120-million-yuan overhaul.
 

Tan Yingpeng, an official with Gansu Provincial Transportation Bureau, said floods this summer caused the soil to erode and the road surface to crack and cave in.
 

Several other highways, including 26 main roads, in the province were plagued by the same problem during the wet season due to the heavy rainfall and rain-triggered mudslides, he added.
 

Nine of the total 15 parts of Tianding Highway shown to be subsiding have been repaired, Tan told the paper.
 

Tan said road officials and contractors responsible for problems have been punished. He would not give details though an in-depth investigation was promised last year.
 

Construction of the 235-kilometer Tianding Highway began in October 2007 and ended in May 2011, according to the bureau's website.
 

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