DPWH ineptness sucks
The notoriety and the cretinism of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Davao and its contractors are reprehensible. They have been the single source of fatal road accidents, destruction of vital traffic lights infrastructures, and major transmission pipes of the Davao City Water District.
Several DPWH big-ticket road infrastructures are still partly accomplished despite the number of years that had elapsed. An important bypass road that was designed to decongest traffic in the city is useless despite its width. While 95 percent of the long highway had been done, there are still bottlenecks here and there. One wonders why DPWH has not done anything to remedy what seems to be a simple problem.
The much-ballyhooed city coastal boulevard is also at a standstill. The bayside highway which is likewise meant to ease traffic is taking an eternity for the project to move on. For now, the few kilometers that had been done are not open to traffic. Only bicycles and promenaders are allowed and yet it had started to deteriorate.
An engineer who used to deal with DPWH told me that maybe the wise guys in the agency are trying to wait for a major weather calamity to happen so they can ask for the restructuring of the project cost.
Some of my guests who visited Davao City for the first time are surprised to find the major streets are with traffic lights but are not functioning. I cannot even give them any plausible excuse. Our city traffic signal lights started to conk out seven years ago and there is simply no perceptible effort to repair or replace them.
Again the main culprit in the malfunctioning of traffic lights is DPWH and its contractors. Each traffic light installation has embedded sensors that were wrecked by DPWH. They never bothered to repair or replace them, and city hall traffic management authorities just do not mind.
However, in fairness to the incumbent Mayor Baste Duterte and the present City Council, a probe had been conducted. We had been very prudent with the city’s expenditure I hope they will consign those defective traffic lights to the junkyard and replace them with a better version.
Water transmission lines, in many instances, were hit by DPWH backhoes. The sad part of it, as DCWD technicians had discovered later, the DPWH contractors would just cover the leak and then cement it over as though nothing the matter had happened.
In time, the punctured pipe will ultimately give way because of the water pressure. The public in turn blames the water utility which assumed the task to replace the pipes while DPWH and its contractors are laughing their way to the bank.
The height of incompetence and idiocy unparalleled in civil engineering is when DPWH added asphalt cement in a segment of the Pan-Philippine Highway in Davao City which was named after former President Carlos P. Garcia but we Dabawenyos call “diversion road”.
I do not know what kind of aggregate was mixed with the asphalt overlay which, in the first place, was unnecessary.
That section of the highway which runs to about four kilometers is now known to motorists as a “killer highway”.
The road is “wavy” and it could suddenly swerve your vehicle to either left or right. Last week, a multiple vehicular accident happened when the driver of a vehicle lost control hitting an upcoming car that led to multiple collisions. The incident caused a monstrous traffic jam and serious injuries.
Several traffic mishaps had happened in the “killer highway” but there is no indication at all DPWH intends to repair the engineering genius they created: a tidal highway fit for the Ripley’s.
DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan should replace all top officials in Davao Region including those at the City DPWH District office.
He should also order a thorough evaluation of the contractors’ performances and status of all the contracted projects in Davao City and other provinces and cities in the region. Blacklist those whose jobs are below standard.
These abuses and incompetence must stop. If they can do these in Duterte country they can do the same in other parts of the country.
“Several DPWH big -ticket road infrastructures are still partly accomplished despite the number of years that had elapsed.
“An engineer who used to deal with DPWH told me that maybe the wise guys in the agency are trying to wait for a major weather calamity to happen so they can ask for the restructuring of the project cost.