THE Cebu City Government has increased the allocated budget for this year’s rehabilitation of barangay roads and thoroughfares from P70 million to P200 million, in a bid to also reduce road bottlenecks and traffic.
Councilor Jerry Guardo, committee on infrastructure chairman, told SunStar Cebu on Thursday, July 6, 2023, that the P100 million had already been awarded to Socor Construction Corp.
Guardo said 80 percent of P100 million will be spent for the rehabilitation of roads and bridges while the remaining 20 percent will be allocated for other structures like public parks, playgrounds and open basketball courts.
Meanwhile, the remaining P100 million is still on hold for the next bidding process for other projects.
The allocated budget for asphalt overlay will be deposited under the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) maintenance project.
Guardo explained that the City Government is focusing on the improvement of barangay and interior roads within the city including mountain barangays.
He said the DEPW will be the supervising agency for the “asphalt storm” project of the City Government.
He assured that the DEPW would accept requests from any barangay that wishes to have road asphalting in their area.
However, the DEPW would prioritize roads in dilapidated condition, Guardo added.
He said it will be Mayor Michael Rama who will choose which barangays need to be prioritized.
“The mayor will identify among those who have submitted requests coming from different barangays. He will choose who his priority is. If someone has been chosen, that will be the time when our contractor will start working,” Guardo said.
He explained the primary role of the DEPW is to classify dilapidated roads that need immediate interventions.
Contractor’s achievement
Apolo Dante, DEPW asphalting storm project head, told SunStar Cebu that Socor Construction has completed only two roads in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City, namely Golam Drive and Tandang Sora Street.
Golam Drive stretches up to 60 meters while Tandang Sora Street extends up to 300 meters.
Dante said almost all barangays in Cebu City have requested for road repair, especially with the advent of barangay elections.
Dante assured that even before the start of the asphalt storm project, the DEPW had already been doing road repairs in different barangays in Cebu City since January.
He said the DEPW has been implementing asphalting, patching, and retreading of roads as per priority scheduled based on request.
The DEPW has asphalted the following barangays: Mambaling (Sinulog Route and Stage), Basak San Nicolas (Alumnus Access road to SRP), Tejero (Tejero National HIgh School Ground), Zapatera (Tourism Office Ground), and Labangon (DSWD ground and Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. National High School).
The DEPW also implemented road retreading and patching in the following areas: Burgos St.,Barangay Sto. Niño; Alfonso Arcilla St.,Talamban; Sitio Kabulakan and Forest Hills Duterte St., in Guadalupe; Vestil St. BRT, and Bagsakan Entrance Road in Mambaling.
Traffic management
The Traffic Management Committee (TMC) Board has urged the DEPW to fully implement the asphalting of city streets since last year.
Kent Francesco Jongoy told SunStar Cebu on Monday, July 3, 2023, that the TMC board emphasized the importance of the quality of roads in many meetings the board had with the DEPW.
Jongoy said the efficiency of transportation sometimes depends on the quality of the city’s roads.
“This concern has been constantly raised by the TMC Board’s business sector headed by member Mike Jo,” Jongoy added.
Jongoy said potholes significantly increase travel time and create bottlenecks due to the drivers’ common attitude of avoiding them to prevent damage to their vehicles.
He shared that in one of his walk-throughs with Rama, the mayor emphasized the importance of having good quality roads in connection with the City’s vision to achieve a Singapore-like status.
“The current status of our streets is far from perfection,” Jongoy said.
However, he said the board is optimistic that city engineering offices, both local and national, can provide measures to maintain and improve the conditions of the roads.
He explained the TMC-Board’s primary functions under City Ordinance 1264 are to monitor and coordinate with national agencies in relation to the DEPW implementation of road infrastructure projects.
“Well, the only way toward development is through our roads in a compact city like ours,” Jongoy said.
Conversion
In April 2022, the Cebu City Government turned over nine roads, namely Sanciangko St., N. Escario St., Leon Kilat St., F. Ramos St., J. Alcantara St., P. del Rosario St., Junquera St., F. Vestil St. and A. Soriano St. to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for immediate implementation of asphalting of these roads.
Guardo said the City Government has requested for these roads to be converted from barangay roads to national roads.
“We endorsed those nine roads to be under the National Government, but we are still waiting for the approval. So what we did was to channel Congressman Eduardo Rama and Congresswoman Rachel Marguerite del Mar to file a bill to declare those as national roads,” he said.
He explained that once these roads are identified as national roads, the City will pass on its responsibility to the DPWH and all the maintenance will be at the latter’s expense.