Labi Road in 1955

To mark the 60th anniversary celebrations, Borneo Bulletin digs deep into its archives to show its readers how Brunei has evolved over the decades featuring photos and news of the years gone by. Here is this week's news from the past.

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This picture shows the Labi Road just below the point where it terminates at Mile 21¼ at Bukit Teraja

SERIA (November 19, 1956) - An oil exploration access road, which cost the British Malayan Petroleum (BMP) Company a total of $3.4 million to build, has been purchased by the Brunei Government for $344,000.

Known as the "Labi Road", it is 21¼ miles in length and traverses some of the most difficult country in the area, from Bukit Puan on the Belait River to Bukit Teraja, a picturesque hill 1,000 feet above sea level from which it is possible to see Seria's flares glowing on the horizon.

A BMP Company engineer told The Bulletin that work on the road commenced in August 1952 and it was not until December 1954 that the project was completed.

Eight Bailey bridges, seven of them capable of taking 60-tonne loads, were brought in to span the various rivers and swamps that were met with.

The remaining bridge, at 630 feet in length, is known to be the longest in British Borneo, if not in the whole of the island.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin --

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