DPWH to fix potholes fast in S. Osmeña road for Ironman

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it will patch up potholes along the Ironman 70.3 cycling route in S. Osmeña road in Cebu City in time for Sunday’s sports event.

DPWH Regional Director Ador Canlas said he will meet with contractor WT Construction to finish this.

WT Construction just finished cementing the right lane of the national road near Qimonda building from the intersection of Radisson Hotel to Pier 4.

“We’ll be doing a dry run at 6 a.m. on Friday which is a peak hour to prepare for the re-opening of the newly cemented portion of the road next Monday,” said Joy Tumulak, Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom).

During yesterday’s meeting of Citom and the DPWH Cebu City Engineering District, WT Construction project engineer Adolfo Quiroga said the firm can only fill the potholes along the race route with soil.

“We can do patching and fill the holes with soil.

On our part, it’s a waste since we will still have to destroy the road after the event. We need the help of DPWH to asphalt it,” Quiroga said.

DPWH Cebu City District Engineer Fernando Cruz, said they can’t do repair work on that portion of the road.

“It is now under WT because it’s included in their contract to maintain the road,” Cruz said.

WT Construction said it will shift t to concreting the road’s Cebu City bound lane in the next two months, Tumulak said.

A road plan prepared by WT Construction showed that the contractor would start concreting works on the inner lane of the road’s mountain side.

Parallel Road

The rightmost lane will be open for light vehicle traffic of public utility vehicles (PUV) and private cars.

The parallel roads of J. Briones and J. de Veyra Streets were identified as diversion road for vehicles that cannot be accommodated at the rightmost lane of S. Osmeña Road, Tumulak said. Concreting works started last March.

Tumulak met with Cruz and WT representatives led by Quiroga yesterday morning to plan the re-opening of the newly cemented portion of S. Osmeña Road to general traffic.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella was scheduled to do his own inspection of the road project yesterday afternoon.

He also plans to o pass by the newly rehabilitated Arellano Street located near the Philippine Coast Guard-Cebu station, which Citom identified as a diversion road at the start of the project’s second phase.

Tumulak told reporters that a security post of the Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) along Arellano Street should be removed to clear the road of any obstruction.

He said north-bound vehicles will be using the diversion road and will proceed to Baclig Street located inside the CPA compound on their way to the North Reclamation Area.

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