On April 18, from the hours of three to eight in the afternoon, the 244 kilometer stretch of the interstate highway between the towns of Goris to Meghri was closed due to heavy rainfall and landslides. Large areas of sink holes in the roadway were also a factor in the temporary road closing. Roadway erosion has made travel over this stretch of highway quite difficult in the past few months. 250 million drams from the state budget has been allocated to construct a 1.7 kilometer bypass on the section of road. The Goris-based "Janshin" won the open bid for the work which is scheduled to begin this month. "Janshin" Executive Director Garnik Minasyan told "Hetq" that repair work is already in the preliminary stage. The government still hasn’t formulated a compensation package for the property owners on whose land the bypass will be constructed. This has held back progress on the repair work. Representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will visit the area on April 21 to assess the situation. Mr. Minasyan informed "Hetq" that the roadway is presently open for traffic but that conditions make the going slow. He said that his company will be monitoring the situation closely.