WITH the traffic situation in Cebu getting worse, government agencies and local government units (LGUs) are working together to fast-track projects that could solve this problem.
During the celebration of All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, motorists were stuck for seven hours in a monstrous traffic jam in San Fernando town.
The Cebu Port Authority (CPA), Department of Transportation (DOTr), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), along with the LGUs in Mandaue City, Consolacion and Liloan, are working together to speed up the construction of a port, bridges and road networks before the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends in 2022.
The DPWH, for its part, is also rushing to implement two road projects in Cebu City that could immediately decongest traffic, especially at the Cebu Business Park and Cebu Provincial Capitol.
DPWH 7 Director Edgar Tabacon identified these as “widening of Gov. M. Cuenco Ave. and Guadalupe-Lahug Road.
The Infrastructure Development Committee of the Regional Development Council (IDC-RDC), which Tabacon and businessman Glenn Soco co-chair, announced that they only need to connect a gap of about 400 meters to make the Guadalupe-Lahug route passable.
If this will be realized, all vehicles from Guadalupe and Labangon can ply in that area without traversing the busy Escario St. in front of Cebu Capitol.
On the other hand, if the widening of Gov. M. Cuenco Ave. from the Grand Convention Center to the side of the flyover at the Cebu Business Park will be realized, there will be no more traffic in the area because vehicles can freely turn right to Escario St.
Tabacon said he wants to finish the Gov. M. Cuenco Ave. project before the end of the year. He said the new road-right-of-way law will give property owners just compensation.
Soco said the DPWH has already won the case in court and the widening was supposed to be completed in March 2018. Most of the lot owners already set back.
“If the utility posts will be taken out, DPWH can open the area intended for widening for traffic in a ‘rough road’ first if there is still no budget for road concreting,” said Soco. EOB