Bridge board wants DPWH to defer projects
The Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB) sought the postponement of road projects around the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge until crew finish repairs on the structure by August this year.
Engr. Pericles Dakay, MCBMB vice chairman, said the regional Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7) should consider postponing other road projects within the area to avoid traffic congestion.
“If the traffic becomes unmanageable, I think some of the other construction projects in Mandaue should be deferred or you move the schedule,” he said in an emergency meeting called by Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III at the Capitol yesterday morning.
“When you are doing excavation work here, road concreting there, what happens is that you are creating traffic from one node to another. You are compounding the mess,” Dakay said.
The traffic management agencies of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue said traffic was manageable on the bridge and in the vicinity since DPWH resumed works on April 2.
But since it was a weekend, they are assessing traffic flow on weekdays.
Paul Villarete, Mactan Cebu International Airport general manager, also sought a traffic count on crucial intersections, most especially Plaridel Street–U.N. Avenue.
Villarete said a traffic count is necessary to objectively find out how the bridge repairs affect traffic flow in the area.
He said based on this data, they could plan necessary traffic interventions when it becomes unmanageable.
“One weekday should be sufficient just to get an understanding of how the intersection works,” he said during the meeting.
Aside from the Plaridel Street–U.N. Avenue intersection, Villarete also mentioned A.C. Cortes Street–Plaridel Street and A.C. Cortes–Hagnaya Road, among others.
Engr. Nonato Paylado, planning division chief of DPWH-7, said the only major project they are working on near the bridge is concreting on Plaridel Street.
Paylado said they will continue to play it by ear.
“We also have a traffic scheme for that project which we might incorporate with our scheme for the bridge project,” he said.
There are 10 ongoing projects listed on the website of the DPWH-7.
The P50-million project on Plaridel Street is expected to be completed on April 17.
The DPWH failed to open the first Mactan-Mandaue Bridge to two-way traffic from 3 a.m. to 6 p.m. last Sunday after a pavement mill bogged down and blocked the Lapu-Lapu City-bound lane.
Engr. Danilo Pasicaran, chief of the construction division, said the mill’s starter exploded at 3 a.m. last Sunday.
It took the contractor, Jegma Construction and Development Corp. 15 hours to have the stalled equipment towed.
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