CEBU Gov. Hilario Davide III hopes that a fourth bridge between mainland Cebu and Mactan Island will start in Consolacion town to ease traffic in the north.
He pointed out that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), which worked on a feasibility study on the proposed fourth bridge, recommended building its approaches in Consolacion town and Punta Engaño in Lapu-Lapu City.
Work on a third bridge that will connect Cordova and Cebu City began last Thursday, July 5.
When he visited Cebu on that day, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said the feasibility study on a fourth bridge is expected to be completed this year, as part of plans to decongest traffic.
In a related development, Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete said that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has a lot to do to fast-track implementation of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
A BRT is among several components of the DOTr’s recently announced traffic solutions for Cebu, which it called the Integrated Inter-modal Transport System (IITS). Its condition was that the BRT should be implemented only on roads with at least three lanes in each direction.
Villarete said these activities include hiring the technical support and social management consultants; renewing contracts of employees of the BRT Project Implementation Unit; reinstating the BRT budget in the transportation agency’s 2019 budget; acquiring land; and evaluating the detailed engineering design, among others.
To start acquiring land, Villarete said, the Legal Affairs Office of DOTr should endorse to the Office of the Solicitor General the filing of expropriation proceedings for the BRT project. This, he said, has been on hold April.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña is expected to send a letter to DOTr outlining the steps both the City and the agency need to take.
In an interview, Mayor Osmeña said it will take a long time for the IITS to be realized.
“It’s all talk. What have they done? It (IITS) will solve a problem by the time my son becomes a grandfather because the process is very long. As far as we know, the BRT is approved and they’re just trying to find a way to disapprove it but they’re running out of excuses,” he said. (RVC with JKV)