Work on 790-M Bacolod economic highway starts

BACOLOD, Negros Occ. – Work on the new 790-million “Bacolod Economic Highway” that will interconnect six barangays in the Negros Occidental capital city has started.

Bacolod Rep. Evelio R. Leonardia told some 250 members of the Bacolod Airport Lions Club during the organization’s induction ceremonies over the weekend that the multimillion-peso road project will connect Barangay Sum-ag to the Bacolod-Silay Airport Access Road, passing through Barangays Cabug, Felisa, Mansilingan, Es- tefania, Mandalagan, and Bata in this city.

The 21-kilometer road will showcase the agro-industrial and tourism potentials of southern and eastern parts of Bacolod and will stimulate economic activities in the area, Leonardia said.

Project funding will come from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Calling the project the new “Bacolod Economic Highway,” Leonardia said it will be a “roadshow of the many economic and cultural facets of rural Bacolod, making it a tourism ride.”

He said, “The road will go through sugarcane fields and rice plantations, fruit and tree farms, cockfarms and old haciendas, and factories and resorts.”

DPWH-Bacolod District Engineer Abraham Villareal said the road will also cut travel time for those coming from Araneta highway by bypassing bottleneck traffic along the existing Bacolod Circumferential Road.

It will connect four national roads, namely Araneta, Bacolod Circumferential Road, Bacolod City Boundary Road, and Bacolod San Carlos Road, thus improving mobility and spreading urbanization access, he said.