A NECESSARY HASSLE

Bizmen affected by concreting of Ouano Ave. asked to ‘sacrifice’ for greater gains

Traffic on the stretch of Ouano Avenue at the North Reclamation Area is already problematic as it is.

The situation though is expected to worsen in the coming months as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7) starts its concreting project of the 1.9-kilometer road stretch.

Heavy traffic and delays in the delivery of goods are expected and would most likely last almost a year.

But business leaders see the need for this project, which is why Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) President Stanley Go is asking fellow businessmen who will be affected by the project to sacrifice a little.

“There will definitely be impact on traffic. But I believe the benefits after the project will be greater than the sacrifices we have to make. We just have to sacrifice a bit so we can gain so much after,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Go said the project and its impact were already discussed by members of MCCI together with Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing earlier this week.

Rerouting

During their Mandaue Business Talks, Go said the city government assured them that they are coming up with mitigating strategies to lessen the impact of traffic congestion and road closures that will result from the road concreting project.

Among the plans is to open alternative routes for vehicles to pass through.

Go said the city government will be strictly implementing a “no parking” policy within the alternate routes in the North Reclamation Area which was recently turned over to the city government by FF Cruz.

The Mandaue City government and DPWH-7 are set to conduct a one-day dry-run of the traffic rerouting scheme since the rehabilitation of Ouano Avenue is targeted to start in March.

The approved traffic rerouting plan was disclosed yesterday by DPWH -7 Regional Director Ador Canlas during the public stakeholders’ meeting at their office at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City.

The areas affected by the rerouting include streets branching out from the causeway such as E.O. Perez, Mantawe Drive, Larazzabal, F.E. Zuellig Avenues and surrounding establishments such as S&R supermarket, Cebu Ports Authority (CPA), Toyota-Mandaue, 2GO Group Inc., to name some.

Phases

There will be six phases to the traffic rerouting scheme, which will be adjusted based on the progress of works.

Canlas said they target to complete each phase of work within two months.

“Reconcreting all lanes of Ouano Ave. can be done within 360 days or less than a year. We will conduct the dry-run of phase 1 this February 27. And if there are no hitches along the way, we can proceed this March,” Canlas said.

In phase 1, the three inner lanes for vehicles coming from Cebu City going to Mandaue City are the first to be rehabilitated. The outermost lane will be left open to light vehicles such as motorcycles and automobiles.

However, heavy vehicles such as six-wheeler trucks and buses going further north on mainland Cebu will be diverted to both M. Logarta Avenue and F. Zuellig Avenue.

“They can either take M. Logarta or F. Zuellig. These are options we provided for them, but we suggested that those bound for Mactan, take F. Zuellig while those destined for northern areas of mainland Cebu, take M. Logarta Ave.,” said Canlas.

The normal flow of southbound vehicles, on the other hand, will not be interrupted since the left portion of the causeway will only be closed once DPWH – 7 will proceed with Phase 2, which is forecast to begin in May.

“We scheduled the rehabilitation to start in March because we’re trying to take advantage of the summer. With no classes, lesser volume of vehicles is expected on the streets.

It would lessen the hassle on the part of our motorists,” Canlas added.

Rehabilitation

The Ouano Avenue Rehabilitation Project aims to put a 35-centimeter thick concrete slab on all of its eight lanes. It starts with removing the existing 14 centimeter-thick asphalt.

The P169.9-million project was awarded to WT Construction Inc., the same contractor of the underpass at the junction of F. Llamas and N. Bacalso streets in the southern portion of Cebu City.

Ouano Avenue is 1.906 kilometers long and stretches from the Mahiga Creek bridge up to Parkmall.

Canlas said they decided to start working the inner lanes first and keep at least one lane of the causeway open so as not to totally close traffic flow in the area. But he still asked drivers and commuters bound for Mandaue City to leave Cebu City “earlier than usual” to avoid being late.

“Of course, we have the Traffic and Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) on managing the traffic, but it’s better if we leave at least 15 minutes earlier than usual. We’re trying our best to ensure that traffic in that area will not be too congested,” he stated.

Necessary

“If you’re asking my opinion if we have to proceed with this project or not, we definitely have to proceed. Right now, the condition of the road (Ouano Ave.) is not good. If roads are not good, movement of vehicles is also slow,” Go said.

The DPWH-7 coordinated with the Mandaue City government to implement the project following complaints from motorists of uneven road surface and the growing number of potholes which could damage their cars and cause accidents.

“Reconcreting is needed in this case because most of the vehicles plying this causeway are heavy ones, especially trucks, coming out from the Cebu International Pier and the adjacent piers of CPA (Cebu Port Authority),” he explained.

Business

Ouano Avenue is one of the vital thoroughfares where trucks pass through going to and from the Cebu International Port and the rest of the local ports where they deliver goods to different businesses.

The road connects to the S. Osmeña road on the Cebu City side of the North Reclamation area.

Some forwarding companies are seeing the need to adjust their operations once the project starts.

According to Kristoferson Dimco, Cebu assistant branch head of Allegiance Cargo Advantage Inc., they expect heavy traffic during the project implementation.

“In that case, we have to consider proper planning in our deliveries. We just have to plan ahead. We will have to convince our clients that our deliveries maybe late especially since we might have to resort to night deliveries,” Dimco said.

He explained that doing deliveries at night would be better since there is less traffic compared to doing it within the day.

Dimco said they are doing deliveries on a daily basis, and they always pass through Ouano Avenue going to and from the port area.

SkyGo, which manufactures motorcycles, has a depot located along Ouano Avenue.

Giovanni Palomar, logistics manager, said their biggest problem would be looking for alternative areas for their delivery trucks to load and unload parts needed to assemble motorcycles.

“The truck ban in Mandaue City had been a big problem on our logistics. We’ve been apprehended quite a lot of times. Now, we’re seeking help with the DPWH-7 since Mayor Luigi Quisumbing advised us to raise our concern first to the engineers before returning to his office to ask for an exemption,” Palomar said.

For their part, ASPAC International Inc. said they will just have to look at the situation once the project starts and also prepare contingency plans.

An official from the company, who requested anonymity, told CDN though that they understand the need for the project to be done already.
“Definitely, we will be affected. But forwarding firms will just have to do contingency plans because the intention of the project is good since there have also been a lot of accidents in that road due to its state now,” the official said.