‘Alternative roads still not ready for use’

Central Visayas personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) patch holes on Ganciang Street as a preparation for traffic rerouting that will be implemented with the start of the underpass project on Tuesday.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Not much improvement can be seen on the condition of roads that were identified by the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO) as alternative roads for south Cebu vehicles though the N. Bacalso Avenue underpass project starts next week.

This was the observation raised by CCTO operations head Francisco Ouano after a joint inspection with the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas (DPWH-7) of said roads on Friday morning.

Ouano said that with what he saw, he is now having second thoughts if the underpass project should already be allowed to start next week.

Still, Ouano said, they are prepared to cooperate with DPWH-7 to make sure that the P683-million project is implemented the soonest possible time.

“For now, we can (only) give them (DPWH-7) 80 percent (road improvement completion). We will also just help them so that they can immediately improve the area. We will pressure them,” Ouano said in an interview with Cebu Daily News.

Ouano said he will continue to monitor progress of road improvement works during the weekend and will make a final decision on whether or not the underpass project should be allowed to proceed as scheduled on Tuesday, August 8.

Engineer Roy Dela Cruz of DPWH said that several factors, including unfavorable weather condition, caused delays on their road patching works.

Ouano said that during their inspection, he saw that only holes found Tagunol Street were already patched.

What he wanted was to see that these roads were already asphalted.

“We saw the patching they did but it was just minimal. Their patching work was slow. We gave them a lot of time to do the patching already,” Ouano said.

The underpass project was originally scheduled in July but its implementation was put on hold because of the need to prepare the alternate roads.

Dela Cruz assured Ouano that Tagunol, Sabellano, Ganciang and Caimito Streets will be ready for the start of the underpass road diggings on Tuesday that would start at the northbound lane of N. Bacalso Avenue, fronting Shopwise.

“We will continue maintaining the roads. We have done square holing going to E. Sabellano St., as well as Ganciang St. and Caimito St. and Tagunol St. The asphalting will follow.
We will finish soon. This will be continuous,” he said.

Road maintenance will continue even when the underpass project may have began, Dela Cruz added.

Dela Cruz said they will also start to put up road signages that will guide motorists where to go during the weekend.