Osmeña Boulevard now open to vehicles

The portion of Osmeña Blvd that was closed the past few days for the removal of the first of two skywalks that will be affected by the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit project, will be opened back to the public today, Feb. 19, 2024.

In an interview yesterday with Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairman of the Committee of Infrastructure of the Cebu City Council, he said the civil works for the removal and transfer of the skywalk along Fuente Osmeña wrapped up on Saturday night.

As the northbound and southbound areas have already been cleared, the stretch will be opened to the public today.

According to Guardo, the said road wasn’t opened for the public to pass through Sunday to make sure that it was cleared of debris.

“We have to make sure bitaw kay we are for the safety man gud unya naa pay ilang mga equipment. Nya gabie raman gud maka transport sa katong slab,” said Guardo.

Now that the removal and transfer of the first skywalk has already been completed, Guardo said they will now proceed to the second skywalk located across Cebu Normal University (CNU).

To avoid the same traffic inconvenience that the riding public went through during the civil works of the first skywalk, the removal of the second skywalk will be done on weekends.

Assessing the overall process, Guardo admitted that it wasn’t the plan to implement road closure as early as Thursday last week.

“It just so happen na during sa pag detach sa mga slab ba, pag welding nila, of course na separated naman sya, nya naay mga nahulog na mga bato ba sa skywalk so the CCTO suggested nga ipa close nalang to prevent any untoward accident,” said Guardo.

For the second skywalk, Guardo said they will begin on Friday night, Feb. 23, 2024, until Sunday which will also correspond to a road closure.

Guardo assured that this will no longer cause inconvenience to the public and the students considering that it will be done only on the weekends.

The procedure of the removal of the slabs includes separation into five parts, then will be removed and transferred one at a time.

Guardo earlier said that the structural integrity of the slabs will also be determined later on to assess its utilization.

He added this may vary according to the assessment of the structural engineer.

Guardo reiterated that their challenge remains in assessing if the slabs are still viable to become a footbridge at the South Road Properties (SRP).

“That would be very costly kay wala pa man gud na kuan (determine) ang soil analysis niya especially sapa baya diba, so lose kaayo ang yuta,” said Guardo.

He added that normally, whenever there is a footbridge construction, structural engineers would require soil analysis. With this requirement, Guardo said they will now leave it to the engineers for their recommendations.

Guardo also that there will now be two options-- build a new footbridge or reuse the slabs.

“But again, this will be up to now the structural engineer kung na retain pa ba ang integrity sa slab or wala na,” said the councilor. -