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Thursday, April 10, 2008
Transcentral highway 'in sorry state'
By Rianne C. Tecson
With Elias O. Baquero & Gerome M. Dalipe
CEBU CITY -- Damaged sections of the Transcentral Highway have prompted a businessman to ask the government to immediately undertake repairs before road conditions worsen.
Roberto Aboitiz made the request in his March 13 letter to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.
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"Of late, many sections of the Transcentral Highway are failing, slipping and eroding. There are (even) many areas where the road pavement is literally floating," Aboitiz said.
Aboitiz said in an e-mail to Sun.Star Cebu that the highway has collapsed in many areas on the Balamban side and that soil has moved in many areas.
"The Transcentral is a key road...and the road is in danger of being cut completely thereby making the trip to Balamban impossible. It is already half lane in several areas," said Aboitiz, who wrote the letter in his capacity as chairman of the Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc., which developed the area where the province's shipbuilding industry is situated.
The letter has prompted Emmanuel Rabacal, chairman of the infrastructure and development committee of the Regional Development Council (RDC), to order an inspection of the highway and assessment of the damage.
Rabacal said he asked committee staff headed by Eima Hubahib to inspect the entire stretch of the Transcentral Highway and assess the damage. He asked the team to submit observations, findings, and recommendations.
"This matter will be taken up during the infrastructure and development committee regular meeting on May 30," Rabacal said.
Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said he already asked DPWH to approve P15 million for the rehabilitation of the highway.
Garcia said the DPWH 3rd Engineering District sent the program of works for the repair and rehabilitation of the Transcentral Highway to the DPWH central office three weeks ago.
Frustrated
He said they are following up on their request to hasten the release of the funding. He said he is getting frustrated over the delay of the approval of the allocation that will be used to repair the highway.
The 32.5-kilometer highway, opened to the public in 2000 after 10 years of work, 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.
But recently, Aboitiz said, Japanese investors and other foreign guests have been forced to take the Naga-Toledo road, the old route before the Transcentral was opened, in going to Balamban.
"They have raised serious concerns on their safety, if (they pass through) the Transcentral Highway. With more rains forecast up to mid-year, definitely we'll have more serious problems," Aboitiz wrote.
Risk
Garcia, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Balamban Mayor Alex Binghay were furnished copies of Aboitiz's letter, which also had printouts of photos of the highway's "critical sections."
With the letter and the photos, Aboitiz said he hopes that "remedial action and immediate rectification work" would be undertaken by the DPWH.
"We hope the DPWH will address this concern before the road becomes impassable. I foresee this happening when the rains come. It is also our view that there is risk to life and limb in leaving this road as it is," he wrote.
But nearly a month after he sent the letter, Aboitiz said he has yet to receive any response.
"Nor do I see any action on the ground. I cannot inform the investors in the industrial park when the road would be fixed. This is a difficult matter to explain - why no feedback or action is forthcoming. What is DPWH doing?"
"We in the business sector can only do so much to attract investors and locators to our industrial zones and create jobs and exports. We must rely on government to support our endeavors by providing and up-keeping the basic road network to and from these (economic) zones. While we see a lot of investment in the Clark and Subic areas, we are yet to hear of plans to invest in major infrastructure and maintenance for our very own Cebu," he wrote in his e-mail.
Binghay, meanwhile, said they coordinated with the engineering district for the immediate repair of some sections of the highway.
Monitoring
He said that other sections of the highway were already repaired but permanent repair and rehabilitation is badly needed.
Rabacal said his committee used to monitor the implementation of the project during the time of then Cebu governor Emilio "Lito" Osmeña. The project was financed by a loan from the Oversease Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan, as recommended by RDC.
But after the completion and turnover of the project from the contractor to DPWH, the monitoring stopped. Rabacal said the highway now falls under the jurisdiction of DPWH, the agency that is also tasked to maintain the highway.
"However, because of this concern brought up by Mr. Roberto Aboitiz, I immediately instructed our committee staff to conduct the inspection of the Transcentral Highway so we may know its status", Rabacal said. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (April 10, 2008 issue)
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