Addressing traffic

It’s good to know that the proposed 74-kilometer 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.

Well, it’s good that they are aware because we have been patiently waiting for the matter to be addressed. We can’t rely on LGUs that make up the metro to come up with a solution. Heck, they can’t even agree on a unified traffic plan. It’s something I don’t understand.

The traffic is not confined to a particular place. The roads do not end abruptly once it reaches the border of a city or a town. It continues. And yet, some local executives are too stubborn to see this.

The Provincial Government did form the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-Act) last August. One of its aims was to train traffic management officers of the towns and cities under it.

“I-Act will serve as the mother of all traffic management offices that is being created in most LGUs; they will become an avenue where our towns can voice out their traffic concerns, and the body can help solve this concern,” said Jonathan Tumulak, Cebu Provincial Traffic Management focal person.

I don’t know if this has done any good. Last Sunday, a cousin was on his way back to Argao. He texted me, at past 5 p.m., that they were already at the South Road Properties. Two and half hours later, I asked him if they’d arrived. He said they were still in the City of Naga.

Go figure.