Why not let PUVs go thru Cansaga highway?

Monday, January 23, 2012

MAYORS of Mandaue City and the towns of Consolacion and Liloan were urged to study the possibility of allowing public utility vehicles (PUV) to use the Cansaga Bay Bridge and highway.

In a resolution approved by the Cebu Provincial Board (PB), Member Arleigh Sitoy said opening the bridge to PUVs will ease traffic on the Cebu North Road.

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“Residents are asking for it,” Sitoy said in a text message. But he said he leaves the matter to the better judgment of the mayors.

Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado welcomed the idea but pointed out that ongoing road repairs in the area might complicate matters.

The Consolacion-Liloan part of Cansaga Highway is being widened, while the access roads that branch from the main Cansaga highway to Consolacion town proper is under repair.

“If I will be liberal with the proposal, it might cause tremendous traffic in that bottleneck and soon, accidents might happen,” Alegado said.

The P2.2-billion Cansaga Bay Bridge, a component of the Cebu North Coastal Road Project (CNCRP) in Mandaue and Consolacion, connects to a two-lane road that extends to the Liloan Sports Complex.

Mayor Alegado said she cannot assure additional vehicles access to the Cansaga Bay Bridge and another bridge that leads to her town.

At the Consolacion end of the four-lane Cansaga Bay Bridge, a two-lane road is being widened as part of a project handled by the Capitol and funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

At present, the project is still 38 percent complete, said Provincial Engineer Eulogio Pelayre recently. So it is really up to Capitol if they would allow PUVs to use the road, said the mayor.

She said she will review the proposal after all the ongoing road repairs are accomplished, maybe in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

After tropical storm Sendong, the town is still repairing a bridge off the Cansaga highway, dredging, putting up a riprap wall on the banks of a river, repairing a culvert near the community college, and doing general rehabilitation, said Alegado.

The road-right-of-way from Cansaga highway to the site of the SM Consolacion is still being expropriated, she added.

One end of Cansaga Highway is in Barangay Paknaan in Mandaue City and the other end is at the back of Liloan Sports Complex.

Using the highway, one can drive from Mandaue to Liloan without passing through the busy streets of Consolacion town proper.

The DPWH has allocated P50 million, remitted to the Capitol, to widen the road in both Consolacion and Liloan. There will still be P100-million and P83-million tranches, which are still with DPWH. The total allocation is P233 million.