DPWH TO MCWD: You have until Friday

THE Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) was given until Friday to come up with a plan to replace the pipeline support for its water lines located under the old Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.

Ador Canlas, Central Visayas director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH 7), said MCWD has yet to reinforce the structure that attaches the water lines to the bridge, causing a delay on the bridge’s repair, which started on Monday.

“We could not further delay the rehabilitation of the bridge,” he said yesterday.

The 864-meter bridge connecting mainland Cebu to Mactan Island was opened in 1972 and has not undergone a major overhaul since then, he added.

Canlas said MCWD was asked since November 2015 to act on the matter even to the point of, just recently, threatening the water district to revoke all its excavation permits.

He said MCWD now has to address the concern as the galvanized iron pipeline support might not be  strong enough to hold the water lines once DPWH starts demolishing the bridge’s dilapidated deck slabs, or its concrete flooring.

MCWD’s pipeline under the old bridge brings 12,000 cubic meters of water daily to Mactan Island, which accounts for 60 percent of the water needs of Lapu-Lapu City.

Charmaine Kara, MCWD spokesperson, said the water district would instead ask DPWH for options and suggestions because MCWD, as a government-owned and -controlled corporation, could not rehabilitate its pipe system without bidding out the project, a process that would take from six to eight months.

She said that if MCWD would deploy in-house engineers to weld a brand new pipeline support, it will take two to three months.

“It’s still the same story. DPWH can’t wait that long either,” said Kara.

Also, she noted, they were not invited to the emergency meeting that DPWH called for various stakeholders on Tuesday.