CCTO to open closed parts of Pope John Paul Ave. to traffic

Closed portions of Pope John Paul II Avenue will be opened to motorists starting tomorrow until after the Sinulog to ease traffic in the Mabolo area especially along the road leading the SM City Cebu. (CDN FILE PHOTO).

No more road work on avenue from Wednesday until after Sinulog

Starting tomorrow (Wednesday), the closed portion of Pope John Paul II Ave. (formerly J. Luna Ave.) in Cebu City will be open to traffic again.
The road, where there is ongoing drainage construction project, will be open until the first week of February next year or after the Sinulog celebration, said Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) operations chief Francisco Ouano.
Construction work will be suspended until then.

“We already met with the contractor and the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) last Thursday and they agreed. We also want the people to enjoy better traffic during the holidays,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Ouano added that they have already asked the project contractor to temporarily cover the excavated portion of the road with asphalt layering so it can be passable to vehicles again.

Currently, the contractor of the project is working on the portion starting from corner MJ Cuenco Ave. until near the corner of Cardinal Rosales Ave.

Only the side from SM going to Cebu IT Park has been closed to vehicular traffic to pave way for the project construction which started last September.

Since it will cover around 1.2 kilometers of road, the project is expected to be completed on the latter half of next year yet.

Meanwhile, Ouano has also advised motorists to brace for the holiday rush traffic expected this week leading to Christmas weekend.

“As much as possible, leave early so that you will not get stuck in traffic and also make use of alternate routes to avoid traffic,” he said.

Ouano said they cannot stop people from going to malls especially with the string of Christmas sales and promos that they have.

He said that it is already expected that people will flock to these malls and that traffic on roads going there will be heavy.

In order to cope, CCTO has imposed a no day off and no leave policy for all its traffic enforcers to make sure that there is enough manpower to manage traffic all over the city.

The policy started last December 5 and will be in place until after Sinulog on January 2017.