SOME traffic route changes may be announced soon in the North Reclamation Area as road rehabilitation work on S. Osmeña Road proceeds further north to the corner of Kaohsiung Street and Total Gas Station then to the bridge heading to Mandaue City.
Work near the Radisson Blu Hotel will be finished by the end of this month, said WT project consultant Engr. Adolfo Quiroga.
However, the curing period for cement will take another week.
Preliminary talks were held yesterday with the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and SM City Cebu management in order to ease traffic congestion.
“We need to prepare the public. Hopefully, they can make an announcement on the route. That was missing before. They will move on to the next phase (in the S. Osmeña road construction),” said Sherry Turilla, SM Regional Manager for Operations.
Turilla met with acting Cebu City Engineer Jose Marie Poblete, Citom executive director Rafael Yap and Engr. Jun Gailen of the DPWH to inspect the ongoing road project and discuss route schemes for motorists and public utility vehicles (PUVs).
Longer routes
“We discussed how to speed up construction and the routes to be taken by motorists in order not to affect south-bound vehicles since they have to take longer routes,” Turilla said. Aside from SM City Cebu, other affected establishments are Radisson Blu Hotel, Bayfront Hotel and Cebu Daily News.
Turilla said most southbound vehicles have to take a longer route.
“This meeting helped (explain) the (situation) because they now understand the traffic impact and they even studied the traffic flow in the Cebu Ports Authority,” she said.
Gailen said they will contact Mandaue City officials soon to plan routes for southbound vehicles in order to avoid traffic congestion in the S. Osmeña road.