CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is encouraged to seek the help of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) and the Regional Development Council in Central Visayas (RDC-7) for the improvement of several roads in the city to help ease traffic.
Councilors Joel Garganera and Raymond Garcia said this amid Osmeña’s earlier request to the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas (DPWH-7) to improve several roads in the city — infrastructure projects that would need funds from the national government worth at least P2 billion.
“That is a welcome development and it’s good for the mayor to make such request. However, he really needs a lot of lobbying to the national government,” Garcia said.
Garcia urged Osmeña to make such request to RDC-7 headed by Kenneth Cobonpue and Glenn Soco.
“I am urging him to work hand in hand with OPAV because as we all know very well (OPAV) is conduit from the Office of the President to local government units,” Garcia added.
Osmeña named at least five road projects that the DPWH-7 could undertake to help ease traffic in the city.
The projects include improving the intersections of the Mambaling Access Road and the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR); Salinas Drive, Gorordo Avenue, and Veterans Drive in Brgy. Lahug; and Sergio Osmeña Boulevard and V. Sotto Street.
The mayor also planned to widen the existing six-lane CSCR and Sergio Osmeña Boulevard into eight lanes, both of which, he revealed, have been the subject of the Feasibility and Business Case Studies for the CSCR – Cebu Circumferential Road and Lateral Arterial Roads by the CEDCO Engineers, a private consultant, in 2015.