San Fernando port project halted

NEW RO-RO PORT. Based on the issued Invitation to Bid, winning bidder WTG Construction and Development Corp. will have to demolish the existing dilapidated pier and construct a new ro-ro port facility (perspective shown above) at the Port of San Fernando, Cebu. / CEBU PORT AUTHORITY
NEW RO-RO PORT. Based on the issued Invitation to Bid, winning bidder WTG Construction and Development Corp. will have to demolish the existing dilapidated pier and construct a new ro-ro port facility (perspective shown above) at the Port of San Fernando, Cebu. / CEBU PORT AUTHORITY

FOR five months, work on the P336 million port project in San Fernando town in southern Cebu has been suspended due to the lack of construction materials.

Cebu Port Authority (CPA) information officer Maryknoll Bolasa told SunStar Cebu Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022 that WTG Construction and Development Corp. had stopped work on the construction in June as the materials had not yet arrived from Subic in Luzon.

The project involves demolishing the current dilapidated port and building a new roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) facility.

Bolasa said the CPA’s P336 million budget for the project does not include the steel sheet piles which the latter can get from the Bureau of Customs in Subic.

“Sa pagkakaron gi-halt nila (WTG Construction) ang construction. DOTr (Department of Transportation) funded man ni. Unya parts sa items as published namo sa pag-bidding ani ang steel (sheet) piles available na kay naa sa Subic kay gi-donate sa Bureau of Customs. Unya pwede gamiton sa mga port projects, so wala siya giapil sa computation sa budget,” Bolasa said.

(Currently, WTG Construction halted the construction. This is funded by the DOTr, and the items as published in the bidding include steel (sheet) piles donated by the Bureau of Customs that are already available in Subic and can be used in port projects. So we did not include them in the budget).

“The DOTr still needs to settle the storage fee before it can haul the steel sheet piles from a warehouse in Subic and bring them to San Fernando,” Bolasa added in Cebuano.

She said the contractor can resume work once the steel sheet pipes that will be used for the port’s foundation become available.

WTG began work on the San Fernando port project located in Barangay Poblacion on Dec. 30, 2021 with the view to completing it in May 2023.

But at present, the new port is only 25 percent complete.

Bolasa said they may not be able to meet the target completion date due to the five-month work delay.

Once completed, the San Fernando Port Project, located in the southeastern seaboard of Cebu, will cater to vessels traveling from San Fernando to Tubigon and Jagna in Bohol, to the towns of Mambajao and Mahinog in Camiguin, and then finally to Balingoan and Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental.

It will form part of the Central Spine Roro Route Project of the DOTr aimed at strengthening inter-island connectivity for trade and tourism through ro-ro facilities.

Container port

Meanwhile, the construction of the P9.96 billion New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) project in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion town in northern Cebu is still pending before the Bids and Awards Committee of the DOTr.

One of the two Korean firms that participated in the public bidding already qualified for the post-qualification process after the conduct of a second technical bidding held on June 3, 2022.

Bolasa said the post-qualification was done last July 10 and they do not know when the process will end since the contractor is based in South Korea. (TPT)

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