ZAMBOANGA First District Representative Celso Lobregat has recommended that the wooden stilt bridge leading to the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and
Reconstruction (Z3R) housing project be removed and replaced with a concrete footbridge.
Lobregat said the wooden stilt-bridge will eventually “wear and tear” and it will be dangerous, if not properly maintained.
Lobregat, chair of the House committee on public works and highways, was among the 15 people who fell into waist-deep murky sea water on April 26 as the wooden stilt-bridge they were on collapsed.
The group led by Negros Occidental Third District Representative Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, chair of the House committee on housing and urban development, were on their way to inspect the housing project in Sitio Hong Kong, Barangay Rio Hondo.
Those who fell included Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, National Housing Authority(NHA) district manager Al-Kwharizmi Indanan, and NHA regional director Alfonso Borlagdan. Also with them were their staff and security personnel.
Lobregat showed data he gathered that there were two classification of wooden bridges in the seven houses-on-stilts project sites and these are with 1.5 linear meter (l.m.) width and 2.4 l.m. width.
The seven houses-on-stilts project sites are Mariki, Sitio Hong Kong, Vale Vista 1, Vale Vista 2, Vale Vista 3, Vale Vista 4, and Taluksangay.
Lobregat said the total length of the wooden bridge with 1.5 l.m. width is 15,424.41 l.m. or 15.4 kilometers and 9,624.92 l.m. or 9.6 kilometers for the 2.4 l.m. width.
Lobregat said the estimated construction cost of the 1.5-l.m. width concrete footbridge is P34,362.560 per l.m. or a total P580 million for the entire 15.4 kilometers in length while a 2.4-l.m. width bridge would cost P38,192.85 per l.m. or P367.6 million for the entire 9.6 kilometers.
The total length of the wooden bridge is 25,049.02 l.m. or 25 kilometers in all the seven houses on stilts project sites.
The overall construction cost for the two classifications of concrete footbridge is P897.6 million.
Lobregat said the NHA should source out the needed funds to construct the concrete footbridge.