A makeshift wooden crossing has restored road access to Upper Manang, three weeks after floods submerged a motorable bridge in Chame, the district headquarters.

The road, blocked by floods on September 25 and 26, reopened on Tuesday evening after repeated efforts to clear debris from the river failed.

Floods and a landslide in Ghatte river sent large amounts of debris into the Marshyangdi river. Stones, gravel, and sand piled up in the river channel, obstructing the flow and raising the water level until it submerged the truss bridge connecting Chame with Upper Manang.

For three weeks, the district administration, security agencies, local governments and other government and non-government organisations tried to remove the debris and reopen the river channel, without success. Authorities eventually laid across the bridge’s upper steel beams to create an alternative crossing.

Chame Rural Municipality arranged the timber, with support from the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police and residents. The temporary structure is about 35 metres long.

Jeeps and motorcycles that had been unable to travel between Chame and Upper Manang for three weeks began crossing the river after the structure was completed, the district administration said.

Chief District Officer Mukti Prasad Khanal said the district security committee had decided to build the alternative crossing after attempts to clear the river channel failed. Only light vehicles, including jeeps and motorcycles, are allowed to use it. Heavy vehicles remain barred.

“We could not clear the channel beneath the bridge, so we laid timber over its steel structure to create a temporary crossing,” Khanal said. “This arrangement will remain in place until Dashain ends. We will then try again to reopen the river channel.”

The crossing provides a temporary road link to Upper Manang during the festive season, when travel and tourist numbers typically increase, he said.

Authorities initially considered using explosives to drain the water. The plan was abandoned after officials concluded that no lake remained and that the blockage consisted mainly of accumulated debris. Blasting could also damage nearby houses, prompting officials to halt preparations.

Authorities then tried removing the material using as many as four machines a day. But the volume of stones, gravel and sand piled up to the top of the bridge made it impossible to restore the river’s flow, Khanal said.

Chame Rural Municipality chair Lokendra Bahadur Ghale said some tourists and vehicles unable to leave Upper Manang had returned after the crossing opened. With the road closed, some government employees had also been unable to reach their offices, while the transport of food and other supplies to the upper valley had come to a standstill.

The temporary crossing was built after residents and tourists began risking their lives by walking along the exposed steel beams, Ghale said.

“People were climbing onto the beams and crossing despite the danger. We built the alternative bridge to protect residents and tourists,” he said. “Although the bridge was submerged, we concluded that its structure had not suffered major damage, allowing us to reopen the crossing by laying timber over it.”

The same bridge was submerged during floods in 2021, when a suspension footbridge connecting the two sides of Chame Bazaar was also swept away. It took about a month to restore the Marshyangdi river to its original course, Ghale said.

“The bridge was submerged then, too. The change in the river’s course flooded houses on the opposite bank and swept away some structures,” he said. “This time, the problem became more complicated because a torrent carried landslide debris into the Marshyangdi and blocked the river.”

After the motorable bridge became impassable, authorities opened an alternative route via Mada, behind the Nepali Army barracks, across a suspension bridge over the Marshyangdi and towards Talekhu. That route was also hazardous, prompting residents and tourists to cross directly along the main bridge’s steel beams.

The district administration said the timber crossing had restored vehicle movement from Besisahar to Upper Manang.

Temporary crossings have also been built using timber and electricity poles where flash floods from streams around Chame washed away sections of road. As water levels have fallen, some heavy vehicles have begun crossing the streams directly.

Although the Chame-Bhratang road section had reopened earlier, the impassable bridge over the Marshyangdi had severed the road connection to Upper Manang.

Vehicle movement has now resumed along about 61.5 kilometres of the Besisahar-Chame road and 36 kilometres of the Chame-Manang-Khangsar road, the district administration said.