Friday, April 25, 2008 Repair of TC highway starts May
CEBUANOS can expect repair works on the Transcentral Highway to start next month after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) approved the P15-million funding for its rehabilitation.
Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said he met with DPWH Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan yesterday and got the approval for the repair of some parts of the highway.
Garcia said the permanent repair works that businessman Roberto Aboitiz suggested would be too costly but he will look into it before the rainy season starts.
Rehabilitation of the 32.5-kilometer highway will start in the middle of May.
The P15-million funding will cover the repair and widening of sections of the highway where lanes were reduced to just one or even half the lane due to a cave-in.
A large chunk of the funding will go to the widening of the road. The sections where there is a cave-in will be reinforced to prevent further erosion and will then be concreted.
“We are limited to remedial or patch-up work because if you ask many engineers, this is a design problem,” said Garcia.
Garcia also defended the DPWH, saying the agency has been doing its job in maintaining the highway.
A permanent solution would have been the opening of new roads but Garcia learned from DPWH that it would cost P1 billion.
“Let’s not keep blaming DPWH because they did not design the road,” said Garcia.
Warning signs
At present, Garcia said the state of the Transcentral Highway is “relatively safe.” Warning signs are in place and gravel has been piled on damaged areas of the highway.
The length of the damaged area is less than 50 meters.
In a letter to DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Aboitiz complained about the condition of the Transcentral Highway, saying that some of the sections are failing, slipping and eroding.
“There are (even) many areas where the road pavement is literally floating,” he said in his letter dated March 13.
Aboitiz, chairman of the Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc., pointed out that the highway, which is a key road in Cebu, is in danger of being cut completely, making the trip to Balamban town impossible. In some areas, only half of a lane is passable, he said.
The DPWH is still in the process of studying the program of works but Garcia insisted on hastening the procurement process because of the urgency of the need for repair works.
“I set a timetable because this is in the nature of an emergency...it is posing danger to the lives of motorists,” Garcia told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
He said DPWH officials assured him that work will be completed within 60 working days.
For emergencies, a task force operating at the Transcentral Highway can respond in the event of a landslide. The task force headquarters is in Barangay Gaas, Balamban.
Garcia said that before the summer ends, he will have another dialog with DPWH to explore other options for a “more or less” permanent solution to the problem. He said there is no permanent solution unless the design of the highway is changed.
The Transcentral Highway was opened to the public in 2000 after 10 years of work. It was carved out of the mountains between Cebu City and Balamban to cut travel time between the island’s eastern and western seaboard to about 45 minutes. (JGA)
