DRIVERS and commuters have complained since Saturday about heavy traffic on the two bridges between Mactan and Mandaue, with some saying they spent two hours or more on the road.
Tweaking a traffic light that gives drivers 109 seconds to cross one intersection near one bridge may make a difference, an official said. But it won’t be the only solution.
Ongoing repairs on the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge are also believed to be contributing to the traffic congestion.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), however, said that it has nothing to do with the traffic congestion, despite the repair works.
DPWH 7 Director Ador Canlas pointed out that only one lane of the first bridge is closed to vehicles and only between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. when there is minimal traffic.
Both lanes remain open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Yesterday, the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) and the City Traffic Management System (CTMS) of Lapu-Lapu agreed to make changes in the traffic flow at the intersection near the Lapu-Lapu side of the first bridge.
Architect Florentino Nimor, executive director of Team, said they noticed that vehicles coming from Barangays Marigondon and Poblacion in Lapu-Lapu, as well as Cordova town, have tried to avoid crossing the first bridge when going to Mandaue.
Vehicles instead pass M.L. Quezon Ave. and take the Marcelo Fernan Bridge, Nimor said.
Traffic talks
The CTMS noticed that the slow movement of traffic on both bridges started last Saturday.
In a press conference yesterday morning, Frank Brazil, head of CTMS, said that vehicles slow down when these approach the first bridge because expansion joints have protruded after the asphalt was scraped off.
“Di man sila makapakusog og dagan kay mahadlok man labi na gagmay’ng auto ug jeep (Some drivers don’t want to speed up, especially those driving small cars and jeepneys),” Brazil said. Like humps, exposed expansion joints on the bridge are compelling drivers to slow down.
In a coordination meeting with DPWH, Brazil said he asked DPWH 7 Director Ador Canlas if the bridge rehabilitation’s contractor could place a two-meter ramp before the expansion joints.
Traffic was congested yesterday on UN Ave. in Mandaue reached ML Quezon Highway in Lapu-Lapu, particularly near the road going to the airport.
For much of the day, a traffic jam occupied at least half of the second bridge or the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.
CTMS has received several calls daily from commuters because of the traffic congestion. Several complaints were also posted on Facebook.
Insufficient time
Brazil believes that the time allotted for vehicles to pass the intersection on U.N. Ave. going to D.M. Cortes St. (formerly known as Plaridel St.) was not enough.
Mandaue’s traffic managers provide 109 seconds for vehicles to cross the intersection on U.N. Ave.
“Di kaya ang volume nga ihabwa sa mga sakyanan sa oras nga ilang gihatag (That’s not enough time to keep the vehicles flowing),” he said.
Team operations chief Glenn Antigua said they manually handled the traffic yesterday by deploying traffic enforcers.
Brazil, Nimor, Antigua and Engr. Perla Amar of the Lapu-Lapu City Planning and Development Office met in the afternoon yesterday to come up with a solution.
Nimor said they agreed they will address first the problem in Lapu-Lapu.
On the intersection near the first bridge, vehicles coming from the public market are not be allowed to turn left going to the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.
Amar said vehicles need to turn right to MV Patalinghug Ave., make a U-turn there and go straight to the first bridge.
For vehicles coming from Marigondon or MV Patalinghug Ave going to Mandaue, she said they will no longer have to take right turn to M.L. Quezon Highway.
Instead they can go straight to the first bridge.
Be patient
Brazil said this will still be subject to the mayor’s approval.
“We should have leave early. Aside from that, magbawon og taas na pasensya (let’s be patient) because there is no other way to go from Lapu-Lapu going to Mandaue except the two bridges,” he said.
DPWH has also conducted traffic counts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., once on a Monday and then on a Friday.
Vehicles from Pacific Mall area going to Lapu-Lapu on UN Ave. account for the highest number of vehicles, at 22,800.
The second highest are those vehicles coming from Cansaga Bridge turning left to UN Ave, at 14,000 vehicles.
Nimor said they found out that vehicles on U.N. Ave. that are coming from the second bridge and turning left to DM Cortes St. are third on, with 8,600 vehicles.
Despite challenges, Nimor said they still give priority to this area and extended the duty hours of their traffic enforcers to 12 a.m. daily.
DPWH decided not to close the entire bridge during the period of repair, as agreed on during a meeting called by Canlas last March 22 with stakeholders especially those from utility firms, tourism, business and manufacturing sectors, the local government units (LGUs) of the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, and the Cebu Provincial Government.
Compensation
Last March, Canlas said they were planning to include in the bridge repair works the U-turn slot under the bridge’s Mandaue City side, so that motorists who are facing Lapu-Lapu City can use it.
If this will be realized, Canlas said this U-turn slot will prevent road accidents because vehicles will no longer have to cross the street in going to the university.
However, Canlas said that they have to first give disturbance compensation to about 50 informal settlers under the bridge.
This had stalled the U-turn slot work because of the election ban in giving financial assistance during the election period.
“We can now proceed to the removal of the informal settlers who will be affected by our U-turn slot works because the election is over and the ban on giving financial assistance has been lifted,” Canlas said.
The Marcelo B. Fernan Bridge has a U-turn slot now being used by public utility vehicles which are bound for Cansaga Bridge.