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Rescue team is trying to remove rocks and stones that have blocked the national highway 213, the only access from Dujiangyan City to Yingxiu town, Wenchuan County to transport relief materials on Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Wenchuan County was the epicenter of 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday.

Road repair workers were 8 kilometers away from the county seat of Wenchuan, the epicenter of the massive quake in southwest China, as of 5 p.m. on Thursday, latest development showed.

The reconstruction of a damaged road approaching the epicenter from the west was about 10 km away from the county seat at 1:30 p.m., and 18 km away at the county border at noon, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The road from Lixian to Wenchuan, on which workers made the fastest progress, was cut off after a 7.8-magnitude quake struck southwest China on Monday.

The road was part of the national highway No. 317, which runs from Nagqu in the Tibet Autonomous Region to Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, with Maerkang, Lixian, Wenchuan, and Dujiangyan on its route.

The other three roads into Wenchuan county had also been blocked, making rescue work difficult.