Three lanes of Ouano Avenue will be closed to traffic on Tuesday when the Mandaue City government will implement the traffic dry run for the road concreting project on the avenue. CDN FILE PHOTO
TRAFFIC DRY RUN ON
Motorists are advised to avoid passing through Ouano Avenue in Mandaue City on Tuesday (Feb. 27) and possibly on Wednesday (Feb. 28) as the Mandaue City government and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will push through with the traffic rerouting dry run on these days.
The traffic dry run is for the road concreting project on the Ouano Avenue stretch.
Glenn Antigua, Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM) head, said that three of the four-lane northbound side of the road would be closed to vehicular traffic.
Only light vehicles from Cebu City going to Mandaue City will be allowed to pass along the outermost lane of the Avenue.
“We remind motorists, those coming from Cebu City to Mandaue to just avoid Ouano Ave. They can use the other roads like M. Logarta Ave. and Lopez Jaena St.,” Antigua said.
Those coming from Mandaue City and going to Cebu City will not be affected as all lanes in the southbound side of Ouano Ave. will continue to be open.
TEAM will be deploying 20 traffic enforcers in the intersections near Ouano Ave. for the traffic dry run. This is four times more than the enforcers deployed in the area on regular days.
At the same time, the engineering office of Mandaue City has also started asphalting some alternative roads like Larrazabal St. near Cebu Doctor’s University and the road at the back of Bai Hotel so these will be ready for the influx of vehicles.
Antigua also said that they have already cleared the alternative roads of illegally parked vehicles and that they have been strictly implementing a no parking policy along these roads.
Based on the traffic plan, trucks and other heavy vehicles coming from Cebu City may turn right to F.E. Zuellig St. and proceed to their destinations.
The DPWH and the TEAM will be observing the situation during the dry run on the 27th.
DPWH-7 Regional Director Ador Canlas said that if ever there would be things that would need to be changed or adjusted, they would implement this immediately on the second day of the traffic dry run on Wednesday, February 28.
“If there are no hitches after the dry run, we will proceed with the actual construction by the first week of March,” Canlas told CDN.
Canlas clarified that there would still be no actual work done on the road during the dry run as this would only be to test how the traffic would be when a portion of the road would be closed already.
He said that while three lanes of one side of Ouano Ave. would be closed, it would be compensated by the detour in Zuellig St. which is a three-lane road.
The DPWH-7 set aside P196.9 million for the road concreting of the entire Ouano Ave.
The contract has been awarded to WT Construction Inc. and is expected to be completed in 360 days.
Some business leaders earlier urged the DPWH-7 to try to speed up work on the road as much as possible in order to shorten it and avoid more losses for businesses.