With heavy traffic in Minglanilla town due to onoging road work, south Cebu residents heading north are advised to take the diversion road in barangay Tungkop.
Minglanilla Mayor Elanito Peña fielded 22 traffic enforcers and barangay tanods to guide motorists along N. Bacalso Avenue where the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is replacing the pavement to raise the concrete overlay to 12 inches.
“Those going to the north can pass via barangay Tungkop then through barangay Calajo-an. Southbound passengers can use the national highway. This is all we can do for now to ease the traffic,” he said.
Last Feb. 24, the contractor QM Builders started stripping the concrete pavement from the two southbound lanes of the national highway in barangay Poblacion Ward I.
With southbound lanes closed to traffic, congestion builds up along the highway and in nearby arterial roads especially during peak hours.
The project will affect a kilometer-long stretch of road in barangays Poblacion Ward I, II and IV.
Road work is scheduled from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. said Pena. The project is set to be completed within a month.
The mayor said the DPWH is increasing the height of the highway’s cement overlay to 12 inches and will even its already rough surface.
Motorists have been complaining about the congestion, dust and noise on N. Bacalso Avenue and have written several letters detailing their grievances to DPWH Central Visayas and their head office.
Engr. Nicomedes Leonor, head of DPWH’s second engineering district, said he has instructed QM Builders to speed up work so the inconvenience to motorists will not go beyond the scheduled completion date.
“They won’t be allowed to work on the other lane unless they are already done with the two (southbound) lanes they started,” Leonor said in a text message to CDN.