THE much-awaited opening of the P700-million underpass in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City will finally happen on Saturday, June 15, 2019.
But unlike its much publicized inception and implementation, officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have decided to keep the whole affair low key.
Instead of the usual fanfare, barriers will suddenly disappear to reveal that once four-lane stretch of N. Bacalso Ave. become the same four-lane highway, albeit with two lanes on either side that are now below ground level.
There will be no balloons, no ribbon-cutting, no speeches.
Perhaps, DPWH officials don’t want to call attention to the suffering southern motorists have had to endure for almost two years while the contractor took its time to complete the 620-meter carriageway.
A trip downtown that normally took 10 minutes before work on the “depressed” structure started became an exercise in patience.
Those who had private cars were lucky. They could while away the time in cool comfort, ensconced in airconditioned splendor. The same, though, could not be said of the vast majority who had no choice but to wait patiently while beads of sweat slowly trickled down every known crevice of the human body, as they sat inside public utility jeepneys that inched their way to their destinations.
So after this weekend, public officials, who insisted that the underpass was the answer to the traffic problem in the area, will have known if they’ve been right to champion this project.
Even if it turns out the whole thing was a waste of time and a waste of money, they can rest assured that nothing will happen to them.
There will be no censure, no public flogging, no punishments. No one will be held accountable.
In the meantime, the public has been made aware that this is but a brief respite. An interim.
The DPWH had announced that it was widening both sides of the underpass by 400 meters.
Project engineer Roy de la Cruz said the project should not cause any traffic in the area since the underpass will already be opened.
To which Cebu City councilor-elect Antonio Cuenco reacted: “Had DPWH just implemented the widening project without any underpass, the government could not have spent P700 million or (it could have) used the amount to fix other dilapidated roads.”