Bridge board tells DPWH to work on airport road at night to avoid traffic jams

TO avoid worsening the traffic congestion near the Marcelo Fernan Bridge, the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board (MCBMB) yesterday proposed that the concreting work on UN Ave. in Mandaue City be done at night.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 project engineer Rachel Lumapas said they will tell the project contractor to work at night when there is less traffic.

Still, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, also chairman of MCBMB, chided DPWH 7 for failing to coordinate with the City Governments of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue when it decided to work on both sides of the road that leads to the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.

Garcia said she received many complaints about traffic congestion in the area because of the project.

The MCBMB met with DPWH 7 officials yesterday to discuss the issue.

Schedule

Garcia asked Lumapas to present to the MCBMB on Oct. 2 a plan showing details on the road project’s implementation, like a schedule of the work on the different phases of the project, so that local governments concerned can look at options to lessen traffic congestion.

Edwin Ermac, head of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team), said the DPWH 7 did not conform with the agreement reached during a meeting with the Lapu-Lapu City Traffic Management System and the Maritime police. Under the agreement, the rehabilitation of UN Avenue was to be done one lane at a time.

UN Avenue is a four-lane road with two-way traffic.

Work on the inner lane, on the side approaching Mandaue from the bridge, was completed on Sept. 14 but it cannot be used yet because the cement is undergoing curing. Despite this, the project contractor began working on the inner lane on the other side of the road’s center island, restricting traffic to one lane on each side.

Diversion

Lumapas said work on the lane approaching the bridge is expected to be done by the end of this month.

Garcia said that had DPWH informed the local governments concerned, a traffic diversion could have been set up.

Lumapas said they sent a letter to the City Governments of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City last Aug. 7, before the implementation of the project on Aug. 21.

Lumapas also said they sent a letter to the governor’s office and to the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority, informing the governor and airport officials about the project.

No answer

She said they tried to call Ermac to inform him about the second inner lane but the call was not answered.

Ermac said the DPWH officer should have called his landline or visited the Team office.

Earlier during the MCBMB meeting, before the arrival of the DPWH 7 officials, the board discussed the possibility of chastising the public works department.

Aurora Obial of P.B. Obial Construction, contractor of the UN Avenue road work, said the project was set to be done February next year yet but they were required to finish it next month in time for national events like the thanksgiving mass for the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod.