THE closure of Kennon Road will be one of topics to be tackled in the Fourth Quarter Joint meeting of the Regional Development Council and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RDC-RPOC) meeting on December 20.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, who is also the RDC-RPOC chairman, said the closure of Kennon Road has continuously contributed to the traffic gridlock in the city specially during the holidays.

“We are having a problem along Marcos Highway because of the closure of Kennon Road. Many do not understand and we do not blame them on why it takes this long for the public works to open Kennon Road,” Domogan said.

The Department of Public Works and Highways earlier scheduled the opening of historic Kennon Road to residents by March next year after all rehabilitation works have been finished.

Tiburcio Canlas, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Cordillera regional director, explained that there are ongoing rehabilitation works involving nine critical sections of Kennon Road.

“The moment Kennon Road is opened, then we will not have the problem of traffic at Marcos Highway. And this will be discussed in the fourth quarter meeting of the RDC-RPOC,” Domogan added.

Canlas have instructed the district engineer in charge to expedite the Camp 6 section and Camp 1 bridge rehabilitation which the department hopes will be finished even before the end of March.

“Prior to my assumption as regional director in September this year, the DPWH Central Office released P12 million for Camp 6 and P10 million for Camp 1 which was downloaded to the Benguet 1st Engineering Office. The bidding was done last December 10 and we expect that before the end of the year, this will be awarded,” Canlas said.

Canlas said the ongoing bridge repair along Camp 5 will be finished February.

“We are working round the clock. The problem in that area of Kennon Road is that it was destroyed during Ompong including the Camp 1 Bridge while at Camp 6, it suffered a long road slip,” Canlas stated.

For motorists coming to Baguio, Canlas encouraged motorists coming up to Baguio to use the newly opened Asin-Nangalisan road via the Anduyan bridge.

“Please bear with us since we will be working round the clock even with Kennon, even with the traffic we will be working to assist the Police to ease traffic going up to Baguio. We will intensify the information drive for motorists to use the Asin-Nangalisan road and other roads going up to Baguio like Naguilian and Marcos Highway,” Canlas added.