MMDA orders contractors to expedite road repairs

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has urged the contractors of almost 100 road repair projects to expedite their work with a few weeks to go before the moratorium on all road works is enforced.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and its contactors must work double time to complete all projects throughout Metro Manila.

Sometime next month ( December), Tolentino said the agency will suspend all road diggings and excavations to give way to motorists because of heavier traffic during the Christmas holidays.

Tolentino said all road-related projects will be suspended, whether or not such are completed and finished.

Tolentino advised contractors to put temporary covers on roads being dug up for various purposes including laying of underground electric and telephone cables, pipelines and drainage.

“We are encouraging the contractors to cover with steel plates pot-holed roads that motorists may still traverse,” Tolentino told reporters.

The moratorium includes any digging in the road right-of-way, including passageways and sidewalks, within the cities or municipalities of Metro Manila for the installation, repair, or improvement of water pipes, telephone or telegraph wires or cable conduits, sewers and drainage systems, communication and power line improvements being undertaken by any government agency, public and private contractors.

Because of the ongoing road works, Tolentino said many of the so-called Christmas lanes hardly serve their intended purpose.