THE Looc Bridge, connecting the towns of Malabuyoc and Ginatilan in southern Cebu, was opened to light vehicles starting yesterday after it was closed for a week.
The bridge was closed from Oct. 25 to 31 to give way to repairs on a damaged deck slab.
“Some vehicles can pass now, only light, but we just don’t know what will happen because the hole in the middle is very big,” said Engineer Jocelyn Orcullo, maintenance chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Cebu’s 4th Engineering District, last Saturday.
Orcullo said the deck slab was damaged because of trucks more than the 20-ton capacity of the bridge.
She was referring to 10-wheeler trucks carrying sand and gravel weighing more than 20 tons passing on the bridge located in barangay Looc, Malabuyoc town.
About five meters of the slab, particularly at the center of the 30-meter-long bridge, have been damaged and marked with holes.
The DPWH did not allow buses, trucks, and motorcycles to pass through since the repairs began.
Pedestrians, however, were allowed to cross using footpaths at either side of the bridge.
The bridge was damaged by typhoon Ruby last year and rehabilitated afterward, but has deteriorated once more.
Orcullo said that because there were no detour roads available, southbound passengers had to transfer to other buses waiting on the other side of the bridge.