Neverending story

Southern motorists must be looking forward to the opening of the P700-million underpass in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City this Saturday, June 15, 2019.

For almost two years, their lives were upended by the construction that the City Government under outgoing Mayor Tomas Osmeña and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) deemed necessary to address the worsening traffic situation in the area.

Never mind that nothing will have changed after the fact since that four-lane stretch of N. Bacalso Ave. will still have four lanes, albeit two—one going south, the other going north— will be “depressed.”

This might explain the decision of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CTO) to ban certain vehicles from using the underpass. It must have realized that the project would not solve the traffic problem.

Do you think the proponents can justify all that time and money lost by millions of motorists and business owners whose lives were affected by its construction?

Actually, they can’t.

Nor can they provide a satisfactory explanation why a 700-meter underpass took almost two years to build, while the eight-kilometer long Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, or third bridge, is on schedule for completion in 2021, or three years after actual construction began in July 2018. Mind you, the latter even includes a Cebu South Coastal Road on-ramp and viaduct components.

Last month, DPWH 7 Director Edgar Tabacon announced that it would allocate P20 million for a drainage project that would traverse the newly built underpass, perpendicular to N. Bacalso Ave. near Shopwise.

According to underpass project engineer Roy de la Cruz, the project will prevent flooding in the area. Or so he hopes. Fingers crossed.

The DPWH also allocated another P18 million for the payment of road right-of-way acquisition along both sides of the underpass.

“There will be bigger roads on both sides of the underpass to decongest heavy traffic, which has been experienced in the area for several months now,” de la Cruz said.

By the looks of it, the miserable plight of southern motorists will likely continue. I even doubt the underpass will make a dent in the volume of vehicles in the area, especially during rush hour.

Meanwhile, completion of the drainage project and the road widening will probably take another four years, give or take.

But hey, look at the bright side. At least, southern motorists will have something to look forward to.