Addressing traffic

IT’S good to know that the proposed 74-kilo meter Metro Cebu Expressway has not been shelved. Not much has been heard about the ambitious project since Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, back in July, said that the construction would start this year.

Okay, so it has only been over three months but still, the project, when it was first announced last year, created a lot of buzz and excitement.

Imagine an alternative route that will bypass the congestion of the existing road network that is never far from the heavily-populated coast and takes advantage of the mountainous interior.

I guess you could say that Cebu’s “backbone” will finally be put to use.

To those who still don’t know, the P50-billion expressway will connect the City of Naga in the south to Danao City in the north, traversing the uplands of Minglanilla, Talisay, the cities of Cebu and Mandaue, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela.

The DPWH already allocated P300 million for the road right-of-way and the initial civil works for the three-phased project that is expected to be completed before President Rodrigo Duterte’s term finishes in 2022.

But the project’s updated feasibility study is still on final review by the DPWH’s Central Office, which would explain the “delay” in implementation.

Villar had said that they are aware of the monstrous traffic that Cebuanos in the metro face every day.