THE Visayan Electric Company (Veco) will take out all the spaghetti wires and posts along the six-kilometer Sinulog parade route in Cebu City as it switches to the underground distribution system (UDS).
Anton Perdices, Veco chief of operations, said the UDS will be implemented one kilometer a year.
The UDS starts from Capitol to Fuente Osmeña Circle traversing Osmeña Blvd., then Fuente to the corner of P. del Rosario St. (near Land Bank), then P. del Rosario St. to Imus St., then to Gen. Maxilom Ave., and back to Osmeña Blvd.
The UDS, or underground cabling, complies with City Ordinance 1894's directive to get rid of unsightly wires and posts along city roads.
Perdices said that Phase 1A—from Capitol to Fuente Osmeña with a length of 650 meters--of the UDS was completed in 2015 at a cost of P96 million.
Design change
Phase 1B (Fuente to P. del Rosario St. with a length of 1,100 meters) was completed last Feb. 28 at a cost of P65.5 million.
However, it was only last week that the overhead wires and poles were completely removed.
Perdices said that they are determined to remove the open wires and posts to help the government in beautifying Cebu City.
Noel Modesto, Veco assistant vice president for engineering technical support, said that the company was able to reduce the cost of Phase 1B by at least 40 percent after a change in design.
“Phase 1A was a very expensive undertaking because all the primary and secondary cables were placed underground. Veco, however, was able to cut the cost for Phase 1B and for the succeeding phases because we only included the secondary lines in the underground system,” Modesto said.
He said that the new design also freed sidewalks from obstruction as Veco no longer needs to install transformers.
Perdices said that Phase 2—P. del Rosario St. from the corner of Osmeña Blvd. to the corner of Sikatuna St. with a length of 600 meters--is expected to be completed in February at a cost of P50 million.