A traffic suggestion
In the north congressional district of Cebu City, there are at least two road spans that are long. The first is the stretch of Gorordo Avenue starting at the corner of Gen Maxilom Avenue, within the vicinity of the Colegio de la Inmalucada Concepcion, as a landmark, northward and ending at the junction of Escario Street, where the Seventh Day Adventist regional offices are located, to serve as the other landmark on the opposite side. The length of this stretch is easily four hundred meters to one half kilometer.
If you view a part of Cebu City from the air, the road parallel to Gorordo Avenue is the Osmena Boulevard, which also has Gen. Maxilom Avenue serving as a corner and the Escario Street on the opposite end. My layman's calculation says that this stretch is not hugely different in length compared to the Gorordo side. So, it may likewise have a distance of about four hundred meters, more or less. Of course, our authorities have an accurate measurement to correct.
Again, from an aerial perspective of the city, you will agree that the block within the borders of Gen. Maxilom Avenue, Gorordo Avenue, Escario Street and Osmena Boulevard is very big. A relatively smaller portion of this block is a part of Barangay Capitol Site while the bigger cut belongs to Barangay Kamputhaw.
On any given weekday, the traffic on Escario Street, from the capitol building towards the Cebu (Ayala) Business Park is heavy. The widening of the said street that was done not very long ago might have helped ease a bit the vehicular flow, but still the bumper to bumper situation that occurs towards noon and at late in the afternoon gives stress to drivers.
On the other hand, the traffic situation starting from Fuente Osmena moving along Gen. Maxilom Avenue towards Inmaculada is no better. One day last week when I drove thru it, the travel time was an incredible 30 minutes. To emphasize that point, it took me 30 minutes of driving to complete a distance of less than half a kilometer. By any known traffic standard, that was unacceptable.
There is thus a very urgent need to build a road somewhere in the middle of this huge block to connect Gorordo Avenue and Osmena Boulevard. A city map will tell us that the present N. Rafols Street in Barangay Capitol Site is the ideal connecting road. This road is almost equidistant from Gen. Maxilom Avenue as it is from Escario Street.
The other long road span is Gov. Cuenco Avenue that serves as the boundary mainly of Barangays Lahug and Apas, on one side and Barangay Kasambangan on the other. Starting from the fly-over at Salinas Drive all the way to where there is the Mahiga Creek (with the Gaisano Country Mall, as the landmark), it is much longer than that of the Gorordo Avenue we spoke about earlier.
If we spread the maps of Cebu City and Mandaue City, we will see that the F. Cabahug Street, can be partly considered as parallel to Gov. Cuenco Avenue and Hernan Cortes is the remaining part.
There is no doubt that this is a huge block. Just at the back of Gov. Cuenco Avenue, is the IT Park of the city, workstation of thousands of jobbers, mostly employed by Business Process Outsourcing. The massive traffic jams that occur daily on the old San Jose de la Montana (now Juan Luna Avenue) can be attributable to the fact that there is no other access towards Gov. Cuenco Avenue.
If a connecting road can be built across Barangay Kasambagan, it can (a) solve the traffic grid locks at San Jose de la Montana, (b) make Kasambagan easier to administer and (c) hasten the development of some portions of Barangays Mabolo and Kasambagan. Such road can commence from a bend of F. Cabahug Street where the Rain Forest is located running westward towards the edge of the fairways of the Cebu Country Club.
These projects, if actually done, will cost the city a lot. But, the specter of such a huge fund requirement is peanuts compared to the present losses in man-hours, brought about by unmoving traffic, as a Japanese study recently showed. It has thus become mandatory for the city to consider in their plan to rebuild the city, the opening of these connecting streets.
- Latest
