No plan to deal with UN Avenue project impact

Build build build. It is difficult to argue against this rousing catchphrase of government, especially since it is intended to catch up with an infrastructure backlog that has set back some of the country's millennium development goals. But no one, not even a government, can just build build build without considering the consequences. In other words, a great deal of responsibility has to go into every build build build plan before even the first spade is driven to the ground.

And this is what is sorely lacking in the massive P711 million three-level road project the government, through the Department of Public Works and Highways, is set to begin building on an 800-meter stretch of UN Avenue in Mandaue City. The project, to start this year, entails the closure for three years of this vital stretch from the national highway to the foot of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge to Mactan. Yet no traffic management plan has been submitted to deal with the consequence.

This particular area in Mandaue City is a convergence point. Traffic from Cebu City and the south passes here to northern Cebu and to Mactan and vice versa. From experience, anything that disrupts traffic in this area, by whatever cause and for whatever duration, invariably results in a nightmare. Permanently closing it for three years will be nothing less than hell. There will be widespread disruptions of life in many of its aspects, resulting in untold losses for most everyone.

This is the reason why Regional Development Council chairman Kenneth Cobonpue wants the project deferred and subjected to more public discussion. This is the reason Cebu Business Club president Dondi Joseph said the project should wait until a planned third bridge to Mactan is build to ease the load on the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge as it will bear the brunt of traffic to and from Mactan if the UN Avenue project proceeds as planned.

To proceed with the project without taking into account the consequences is irresponsible, to say the least. As one news report put it, it might only create the very problem it seeks to solve. Moreover, since it is the lives of Cebuanos that will be disrupted, they should at least be given more say in dealing with the disruption. When it is said that time is of the essence, it does not always mean speeding things up. Sometimes it is also prudent to slow things down.

The truth of the matter is, while it may ultimately be for their own good, it is very unsettling to many Cebuanos for the DPWH to just make decisions on their behalf without making them aware of even some of the important details. Cebuanos cannot just be roused one day and told there is this project to be started tomorrow by a Tacloban contractor that will turn your lives upside down for three years. For in addition to responsibility, transparency must also be demanded.