It is business as usual along the S. Osmeña Road as the DPWH and City Hall disagree on the start-up date of the road repair project.
BEFORE any road repair or closure can start in S. Osmeña Road, an agreement has to be made in writing.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, who walked the length of the road yesterday morning, said he insists on keeping one lane left open on each side of the six-lane highway while repair work is done so that business establishments there won’t lose access to customers and traffic.
He left for Manila with instructions to have a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) drafted for him to sign with the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The agency was forced to postpone its five-month repair work on the national road scheduled to start last Tuesday due to objections by business owners who appealed to the mayor.
City Hall and the DPWH still have to agree on how to proceed with the 900-meter road project.
In yesterday’s 888 News Forum, Nonato Paylado of the DPWH planning and design division said: “Everything had already been set” and delaying the project further would affect the project’s timeline.
Adolfo Quiroga of WT Construction said they need five months to complete the project as they promised Mayor Rama work on or before October 28.
MOU
The MOU will be signed as well by owners of estabishments along the affected portion of S. Osmeña Road from the corner of Juan Luna Extension to the corner of Gen. Maxilom Avenue and the Cebu Ports Authority.
The mayor wants the CPA included because traffic rerouting includes the opening of the CPA service road – Baclig Street for vehicles coming from the northern part of the city to the Qimonda IT building and SM City areas.
But Paylado said this could mean delays in the completion of the project and could affect the staging of the Sinulog in 2015.
The five-month project will have the concrete pavement stripped and replaced as part of the P289 million concreting of the 2.5 kilometer stretch of the S. Osmeña Road from the Mahiga Bridge to the corner of Palma Street near the Cebu Technological University (CTU).
It was originally set to be be finished in April next year. To speed it up, the only way is to close certain sections and reroute traffic.
In a meeting between Rama and businessmen affected by the road-concreting project at City Hall last Monday, Sherry Tuvilla, regional operations manager for SM Malls, said they need one week to inform customers about the road closure. The mall’s payday sale on March 14 to 16 also stands to be affected.
Citom plans to post 40 enforcers to man traffic in 14 intersections along the work site with two shifts per day. /with reports from Correspondent Edison delos Angeles