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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
City Hall may file suit v. contractor
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
A MULTI-million damage suit will be filed against the private contractor repairing Carmen Bridge if it fails to finish the work on or before June 23, Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) traffic czar Ramon Tabor vowed Monday.
Mayor Vicente Emano is looking into whether to call for an extension on the total closure of Carmen Bridge to expedite the completion of all repair works.
A local mall magnate, Ororama Mega Center owner Hong See, lamented that repair works over the bridge is slow and could be fast tracked with more men and equipment.
"There were only a handful of men working at the bridge," he said.
Enterprising boat owners are now operating under the bridge while the RTA has now negotiated that a small one-lane be opened only for people to pass through the totally closed bridge.
RTA traffic measures were marred in the wake of three vehicular accidents at major roads leading to the Marcos bridge Monday with Tabor saying they only have "moderate traffic" as compared to that of May 8.
Tabor said their office would immediately recommend to Emano the filing of a civil suit against bridge repair contractor Adhi VT Lao if it breaks its promise.
"If Adhi VT Lao fails to finish all repair works on schedule, then we will file multi-million punitive damages against them," he said.
Tabor cited grounds on how the City Government and its residents suffer great loss and inconvenience should the contractor fails to finish all works as promised.
But he said if it would only mean two or three days difference then he would not recommend the extension of the total closure of Carmen Bridge from the present scheduled May 15 to 18.
"If we totally close Carmen Bridge for the contractor to finish it on June 20, I will recommend against it. But if we totally close Carmen Bridge and the contractor finishes it on June 2 or 5 then probably I will recommend it," he said.
Tabor added that he would rather have a longer bridge repair schedule and have one lane open to the public than an extended total closure of the bridge that but would only save days but an extended "days of inconvenience" to the public.
He said even people who want to cross the bridge were barred from doing so when the bridge was totally closed to the public. Because of this, he said, there are now several small boats operating and asking P5 per passenger.
"But now we have negotiated with the contractor to open a one-lane for those people who want to cross the bridge," he said.
Tabor assured that they are doing everything they can to make sure that traffic is smooth all over the city with the total closure of the 50-year-old Carmen bridge and with two bridges only available to the public.
He admitted that their efforts were marred when a sand and gravel truck owned by the Saarenas Tracking bogged down in front of Land Bank Velez among other vehicular accident at Barangay Kauswagan.
"I am just asking the public to check their vehicles and its road worthiness, gasoline supply before going out to the city roads," he said.
Tabor said they were glad that the traffic was not that monstrous as in May 8 when they first closed one lane of the Carmen Bridge.
"We only have moderate traffic not like what we had last May 8 when I admit we were unprepared for it," he said.
Tabor attributes this to how private vehicles have now realized that it is better to use the Taguanao-Balulang Bridge even if it means going on a longer route than be stuck on traffic by taking the shorter one.
"Also, perhaps the people are now avoiding the rush as compared to last May 8," he said.
(May 16, 2006 issue)
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