ORMOC CITY, Leyte -- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 4th Leyte District Engineering Office (DEO) will implement P2.06-billion worth of infrastructure projects this year in northwest Leyte.
Among the biggest projects the office will start soon is a diversion road that will link the coastal villages of Naungan and San Juan in this city.
Both communities are close to each other but are separated by marshlands. Reaching one village to the other requires a boat ride or driving 11 kilometers by land. Building a road in between will connect the two villages and cut short the travel distance to only four kilometers.
“Since San Juan serves as boundary to the next town of Merida, the proposed road will also reduce the distance from downtown to nearby town to 20 kilometers from the present 27 kilometers,” said district engineer Lino Francisco Gonzales said on Thursday, February 1.
The coastal road will prove useful vehicles going further to Leyte Industrial Development Estate in Isabel 47 kilometers away.
The DPWH has initially released P300 million to cover one kilometer of the project.
Gonzales assured the project will be included in the department’s multi-year programming until the entire undertaking is completed for P2 billion.
Aside from having the six-lane, 30-meter wide road parcellary titled, the field will not observe the tradition of developing from the inner lanes out, but instead will concretize the outer four lanes and place an island in between to prevent encroachment by illegal settlers. (PNA)