Friday, November 23, 2007 Council wants billboards in city checked
THE MANDAUE City Council tasked two committees to look into the structural integrity of billboards in the city.
This came after Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said that some billboards in the city are not safe.
The committee on public works, headed by Councilor Emil Rosal and the committee on transportation and communication, headed by Councilor Beethoven Andaya will look into the integrity of the structures, which collapsed last Monday.
The results of the investigation will aid the councilors in drafting an ordinance regulating billboards in the city.
Mangled
Fortuna cited as example the unipole that collapsed along UN Ave., wherein its mangled supporting column exposed its inner make of small metal scaffoldings.
To make it appear as a solid and strong column, the whole bunch of scaffoldings were wrapped with iron sheet.
Fortuna said the committees will ask building officials why they approved this kind of column for unipoles, as the design is supposed to withstand all types of weather disturbances.
“If the entire city was hit by a storm why is it that only three billboards fell?” Fortuna said.
Billboards not affected by the storm will also be checked by the city engineer’s office personnel.
Advertisers
He said the council will also invite the officials and representatives of Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines for discussion.
The association, he said, has a standard design for billboards and this will help them in drafting a safety ordinance regulating the construction of billboards.
The committees will render their report in the next session.
Three billboards collapsed at the height of tropical storm Lando last Monday.
A huge unipole collapsed along United Nations Ave., another one in Plaridel St. both in Barangay Umapad and the third billboard in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia fell on the roofs of some houses.
No one was reported injured in the incidents. (OCP)
