Thursday, May 01, 2008 Tom stops building construction to force owners to fix road damage
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña suspended for six months the building permit of a 25-story hotel after its contractor failed to fix the road that was allegedly damaged during construction.
Cebu Renful Development Corp. was also ordered to fix Archbishop Reyes Ave. and Escario Extn., which have cracks and showed signs of caving in, Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem said.
He said the project contractor drew the mayor’s ire again when he learned that the sidewalks of the roads surrounding the construction site were damaged.
The project is located on a lot boxed in by Archbishop Reyes, Escario Extn., and J. Solon St.
Osmeña first ordered the construction work stopped last August when a portion of J. Solon collapsed because of the excavation for the hotel’s basement.
Young Builders, the project contractor, also closed to traffic a portion of the road without City Hall approval.
And although Young Builders already fixed the damaged area of J. Solon, it failed to restore it to its original surface and neglected the damages on Escario and Archbishop Reyes, City Engineer’s Office officer-in-charge Kenneth Enriquez said.
“Due to your failure to properly restore and open to the general public the portion of J. Solon St., which you illegally enclosed since Aug. 3, 2007, your building permit is hereby suspended effective upon receipt of this notice,” Osmeña’s said in a letter sent to Cebu Renful Development Corp.
The suspension period was not indicated in the letter, but Jakosalem said it was for six months, which would start after all the necessary repairs are completed.
“The City Engineer’s Office already warned us that if the contractor doesn’t fix Escario St. soon and it rains heavily, the road will cave in. And we can’t afford to close Escario because there are only two lanes there and it’s a major road. We will have traffic problems there if we close that road,” Jakosalem said.
Young Builders is the same contractor the mayor blamed for the delay in building a multi-purpose ramp at the Carbon Public Market.
WT Construction was not able to immediately proceed with the ramp’s construction because Young Builders fenced off a portion of Unit II while it tried to collect payment for additional works from City Hall. (LCR)
