Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Most Cuenco Ave. lot owners agree to sell lots to government
THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) need only to negotiate with a few more owners to complete the purchase of 21 parcels of commercial land needed to expand Gov. Mariano Cuenco Ave. and Mahiga Bridge in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
DPWH Legal Officer Agustinito Hermoso said “80 percent” of the owners of lots subject for expropriation already agreed to sell their properties.
This means that the portion of the road by the flyover construction site can already be expanded.
WTG Construction and Development Corp. has already demolished the sidewalk to create an additional lane for each traffic flow direction.
Once work goes full-scale, WTG will close the inside two lanes of the four-lane road, leaving just a lane for each side of the road available for motorists.
With the ongoing work on the sidewalk, motorists will have two lanes on each side even though the inside lanes will be closed off, Hermoso said.
Hermoso said the lot owners who have not yet given their assent to the offer are not necessarily against it.
Some of them may not have received their communication yet, he said, as they just learned that there are lots that were already subdivided and issued with separate titles after the DPWH survey last year.
Hermoso also confirmed that the DPWH agreed to pay for the balance of the projected overtime expenses of the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) for its traffic enforcers manning traffic at the construction area.
City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem said it was good news for the City government, which will be forced to fund the overtime pay of the traffic enforcers if WTG or the DPWH could not give the needed amount.
He said the Citom would need P1.5 million for the six-month duration of the construction.
At least 76 enforcers, aided by barangay tanods, are assigned to the Banilad-Talamban area.
Construction started last Feb. 1 and is promised to be finished in six months. The contracted period for building the flyover is 300 days or 10 months.
Hermoso also said the regional office has designated him the spokesperson who will give daily updates on the progress of the construction.
He said WTG is still within the schedule and could meet the six-month deadline even though the contracted period is 300 days.
The Cebu City Council last week asked WTG and the DPWH to designate a spokesperson.
Early this year, the DPWH 7 was faced with the need to raise P50 million to expropriate at least 7,400 square meters of private properties for expansion of the road and Mahiga Bridge.
The expansion will complement the 390-meter, P86.9-million flyover, which will span Gov. Mariano Cuenco Ave. from the vicinity of Mahiga Bridge (by the Gaisano Country Mall) beyond the A.S. Fortuna St. intersection.
The P50 million is needed after a 350-percent increase in the Bureau of Internal Revenue zonal values of properties in Barangay Banilad.
The BIR assessment division had said the zonal valuation of properties along Gov. Cuenco near the Banilad Town Centre area shot up from P3,450 to P15,500, effective October last year.
Without the road and bridge expansion, a bottleneck would result at the Country Mall intersection once the flyover is completed.
Project proponent Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north district), though, managed to have the amount included in the country’s 2008 budget. (RHM)
