‘Traffic plan in place before project’

Engr. Nonito Paylado, DPWH planning division chief, shows a design perspective of the UN Avenue underpass project in Mandaue City to the Mactan – Cebu Bridge Management Board.
CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza

DPWH ON UN UNDERPASS

A traffic management plan will be in place before work on the UN Avenue underpass project, an official of the regional Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7) said yesterday.

DPWH-7 Planning Division Chief Nonito Paylado told the Mactan Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB) in yesterday’s meeting that they started work on the project’s design stage.

“Part of the design stage includes preparations for a parcellary survey to determine the affected properties. It will also include the crafting of the traffic management plan,” Paylado said.

The MCBMB consists of officials of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), Regional Development Council-7 (RDC-7) and local governments of Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, and Cordova town.

Stakeholders in both the public and private sectors in Cebu earlier called on the DPWH to produce a traffic management plan to avoid a traffic gridlock in U.N. Avenue and nearby streets once construction on the tri-level project starts.

The U.N. Avenue Tri-Level project consists of an underpass and a two-lane service road, one flyover for vehicles and one skywalk for pedestrians.

Its endpoints are located on the Mandaue entry point of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge and on the intersection of A.C. Cortes and Plaridel Streets.

Paylado said the DPWH-7 will welcome suggestions and ideas from outside experts on the traffic management plan which they earlier promised to finish by June this year.

Paylado said the traffic management plan will be submitted to the Mandaue City government for review and approval.

He said they will build some service roads before digging an area of 800 meters for the underpass.

Paylado said vehicles bound to and from Mactan via the Marcelo Fernan Bridge will take the underpass while vehicles bound to other parts in Mandaue City are expected to pass through the service roads.

Business leader Glenn Anthony Soco, who chairs the RDC-7’s Infrastructure Development Council (IDC), called on the DPWH-7 to make sure that their traffic management plan will be comprehensive and transparent.

“This intersection is the most important section of Metro Cebu. What’s at stake here is our economy and our tourism industry,” he said.

The U.N. Avenue Tri-Level Project is one of four “Infra-Boom” plans unveiled by Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar during a visit to Cebu last May 2017.

Villar said these big-ticket projects will solve the growing traffic congestion in Cebu.

Other projects in the government pipeline are the Cebu Express Highway connecting Danao City and Carcar City, the Bypass Road from Talisay City and Naga City, and the 700-meter underpass in N. Bacalso Avenue which is under construction.