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Saturday, November 19, 2005
Mandaue, Cebu mayors buck 3rd bridge
CEBU CITY -- A third Mactan Bridge is not needed, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano said Friday.
Both sit in the Regional Development Council, which vets major infrastructure projects, so proponents of a third bridge between Mactan and Cebu mainland has their work cut out for them.
Osmeña said he would rather build a road from Lapu-Lapu City and have a ferry cross the old Shell Island to Cebu City than build another expensive bridge over the Mactan Channel.
Osmeña, who included this design in his proposed master plan for Cordova town in the early 1990s, said the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board's (MCBMB) plan to put up another bridge will "not really help."
The MCBMB raised the proposal for a new bridge after it suspended the one-way traffic scheme on the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge last Thursday. The experiment, which lasted three days, clogged up traffic and frustrated commuters.
The Cebu City mayor said the board should try to shift the traffic to Cebu City, but they can't make another bridge on the side of Mandaue City because there are already two bridges there.
"They think it's cheap? It's not cheap. My guess is if the second bridge is P2.5 billion, a third bridge would cost about P8-P10 billion," he told a news conference Friday.
For Ouano, a tunnel could link Mactan Island to mainland Cebu.
Ouano said the tunnel could cover Cordova town and the South Reclamation Project in Cebu City.
This may even boost tourism and spur economic activity, the Mandaue City mayor said in an interview Friday.
A Lapu-Lapu City councilor, meanwhile, sees the need for a third bridge to connect Mactan to Cebu, but not until the City finishes a proposed reclamation project.
Councilor Alley Berdin, who heads the committee on infrastructure, said they are already negotiating with Public Estates Authority to undertake the project in Barangay Ibo.
He said the reclamation project would start within three years.
Traffic jams
Part of the reclaimed land will be a commercial and industrial port that will serve the needs of the city and the Mactan Economic Zone.
The increase in Mactan Island's economic activity and population has resulted in heavier traffic on the two bridges.
Last Monday, the bridgeboard implemented a one-way traffic scheme on certain hours at the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge. But it scrapped the experiment last Thursday, following complaints from motorists and commuters who found themselves stuck in traffic.
The one-way scheme was implemented in anticipation of the increased traffic, with Cebu hosting the Advertising Congress, which ends Saturday, the Southeast Asian Games and the Lapu-Lapu fiesta this month.
At least 7,000 vehicles use the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge every day, while only about 2,000 cross the second bridge, according to a study by the Department of Public Works and Highways. The first bridge has been used since 1973.
Ouano said traffic jams happened during the one-way experiment because Lapu-Lapu City's roads cannot handle the volume of vehicles.
Road changes
At the Mandaue side, the approaches to the two bridges stretch more than one kilometer and have alternate routes.
The mayor also suggested that the center island on Maximo Patalinghug Avenue be reduced, because this is too wide.
Also, vehicles from Mandaue going to Lapu-Lapu must not be allowed to make a left turn upon descending the bridge.
Either they make a right turn to the city proper or they should go straight to Maximo Patalinghug Avenue and make a U-turn at a designated section.
Public utility vehicles, especially the multicabs, going to the market from Barangay Pusok should use the lane designated for tricycles to reduce the volume of vehicles waiting at the intersection at the foot of the bridge.
Last August, Mayor Osmeña had promised to build a causeway from Cordova to Cebu City and give prime SRP lots to the town if the Municipal Government will accommodate Badjao tribes in Tongo Island.
Think again
But he does not favor a third bridge.
"The untrained mind would say it (third bridge) is a short distance. It's not distance, it's the clearance of the ship," Osmeña said.
Osmeña said it's hard to build a bridge in Cebu City because City Hall will "have to close the harbor" and the facility could extend up to the Central Business District, destroying establishments on Colon Street to accommodate a certain slope of the bridge.
"The traffic problem on the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge will continue," Governor Gwendolyn Garcia earlier said, as she raised the need for a new bridge. Garcia heads the bridgeboard.
When sought for comment, it took seconds for the Cebu City mayor to say, "I think that it has to be more than just another bridge. It has to be a more intelligent plan."
"A ferry is good enough, very feasible," Osmeña said. (GAC/AAG/OCP of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(November 19, 2005 issue)
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