It’s back to old traffic scheme on N. Bacalso Ave.

Because motorists had a hard time coping with the new traffic schedule, the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) decided to revert to the old traffic scheme near the underpass project site on N. Bacalso Ave.

Initially, CCTO and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 agreed to open F. Llamas St. and the southbound lane of a portion of N. Bacalso Ave. exclusively for northbound vehicles from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. once the northbound lane in front of Shopwise is closed to pave the way for Phase 4 of the underpass project.

From 2 p.m. to 6 a.m., it will be accessible only to southbound vehicles.

However, the CCTO observed congestion caused by confusion over the new traffic schedule during the two-day dry run it conducted over the weekend.

CCTO operations chief Francisco Ouano said they found the old scheme used during the construction of the Phase 2 of the project to be more effective.

This would mean that starting today, all northbound vehicles will take one lane of the southbound portion of the affected area.

Southbound vehicles may continue to access the pocket roads on Flash Elorde St., E. Sabellano St., or on Tagunol St.

Trucks and buses, however, are still banned from plying N. Bacalso Ave. to prevent congestion and causing inconvenience to the riding public.

“Mas effective man gud to ang sa una kay unfortunately, daghan sa atong mga motorista ang wa maanad ug wa ma-inform sa atong new traffic schedule. To avoid confusion, ato lang usa ibalik atong karaan na scheme although this is still experimental,” Ouano said.

At least 12 traffic enforcers will also direct traffic in the area to avoid heavy congestion.

Phase 4 of the project, which will include boring, concreting and construction of the retaining walls, will run for three months.

Meanwhile, DPWH 7 is anticipating how the rainy season would affect the ongoing construction works on the multi-million underpass project.

DPWH 7 project engineer Engr. Roy dela Cruz said that if the heavy downpour continues, it might affect the concreting works on the dilapidated pavements covered by the road closure of the northbound lane.

“Since we can’t pour cement when it’s raining, what we do is keep up with weather updates to prevent any delays on the project. We’ve observed that rains always occur during the afternoon in the past days, so we hasten what we can do before the downpour,” he said. /