Are we there yet? Bad to worse

CEBU, Philippines - Last week, the public works department finally dropped the bomb and announced the start of another infrastructure repair project that is set to make traffic at the wannabe Kapitolyo City worse than it already is.  Starting today, the Diaper City bound lane of the outdated bridge is going to be closed to vehicular traffic for repairs.  Aside from that, they have already started road rehabilitation on Ouano Avenue.

It is bad enough that they are implementing two projects that are supposed to take months to complete.  They’re implementing these projects on the heels of previous projects that have yet to finish.  And to make matters worse, they did not mention that they’ve already begun destroying one lane of JL Briones Street, making traffic even worse for those coming from AC Cortes or Plaridel Street.

The regional honcho of the public works department goes on to appeal to the public to be patient as these projects are supposed to improve road conditions once they’re finished.  Right now, I’ll tell you this, no amount of road improvement project will improve the traffic heading towards the old bridge.  You can pave as many concreted lanes as you want, but with an outdated two-lane bridge at the end of that road, you’re not going to see traffic flow get any better.  The DPWH should have just let things stay status quo for the moment and build the third bridge first.  Besides, the clearing of illegal structures under the old bridge isn’t going to go down as smoothly as they would hope.  I’m pretty sure that there will be some form of resistance coming from the self-righteous dwellers who’ve made living under the bridge more humane than the faerie tales they used to tell us as kids.

The same department also justifies their need to immediately implement the said project since this was supposed to have been implemented last year yet.  They said that this should’ve been done last December 2015 but they defrayed it because of two major events happening in January.  Well, in a way, they are admitting to their amazing degree of ineptitude.  They decided not to implement the project last December because they knew, just like their other road repair projects, they’ll never finish this within the next decade.

If anyone from the public works department would try to challenge me by asking me to point out what makes them an extremely inept organization, I just need to point at their masterpiece roadwork in front of their office in the wannabe Kapitolyo City.  They planned the road so well that they built a center island that prevented them from crossing to the other lane.  Realizing their mistake, they went ahead and chopped a chunk of the island to allow their vehicles to cross.  Unfortunately, this chunk was not enough.  They still end up running against the flow of traffic for a good 10 meters before they get to cross to the other side of the road. 

Oh, and isn’t running against the flow of traffic illegal Mr. TEAM traffic enforcer?  I guess both entities should re-label themselves.  Instead of  “Daghan Project Walay Human” and TEAM, they should call themselves Dumb and Dumber.  They can argue amongst themselves as to who takes the former and the latter.  And knowing how these two operate, it will take a long while for them to figure it out.  (FREEMAN)