BRT Project finally breaks ground Feb. 27

Pres. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. is special guest

BUS STATION. This is the architectural design of one of the stations of the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit project. —FACEBOOK

CEBU CITY, Philippines — After several postponements, the ceremonial groundbreaking for Phase One of the long-awaited Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is finally scheduled on Feb. 27, 2023.

This was confirmed by Engineer Bu Varquez, the city’s BRT project overseer, in a text message to CDN Digital on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023.

“Yes. The final date was announced by PMS yesterday,” he told CDN Digital.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) director Eduardo Montealto, Jr., also earlier told CDN Digital that the date for the groundbreaking would be on Feb. 27.

The Cebu City Public Information Office (PIO) earlier reported that the proponents and the contractor of the Cebu BRT plan to break ground in January this year.

However, because of the conflict of schedule between Mayor Michael Rama and President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., it did not push through.

The Department of Transportation awarded the contract for Package 1 of the BRT project to Hunan Road and Bridge (HNRB) Construction, a contractor based in Hunan, China, in November 2022.

Package 1 of the BRT starts from Capitol through Osmeña Boulevard and right to Cebu South Bus Terminal on N. Bacalso Ave.

On Wednesday, top executives of HNRB Construction, including its general manager Guo YangXiao and BCG project manager head Huang Qunhong, paid a visit to the office of Mayor Michael Rama to discuss developments on the BRT Project.

The contractor, Varquez, said were now preparing the required permits, such as the mayor’s permit, for the full-blown start of the civil works for Phase One.

“Ni-update silang mayor nga at this point in time, nagkuan sila sa ilang mga permits. After na anang ga permits tanan, mo-proceed na sila sa ilang demolition sa center island and transfer sa streetlights,” he said.

(They updated the mayor that at this point in time, they were working on their permits. After all the permits have been done, they will proceed in the demolition of the center island and transfer of the streetlights.)

“Unya, nagpahibaw lang sad sila nga mopresent sila sa ilang detailed workflow sa mga different city departments para ma aware…og unsay mga schedules nila. The important thing here is naa man gud siya sa main thoroughfare and si Mayor is very concerned about the effects sa traffic,” he added.

(And they also informed that they will present their detailed workflow to the different city departments so that they will be aware…of what their schedules are. The important thing here is it is in the main thoroughfare and the mayor is concerned about the effects on traffic.)

Varquez also said the Cebu City Transportation Office will assist in managing traffic during the ongoing works for the BRT Phase One.

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/dbs

(Note: Update on the visit and plans of the contractor are added.)