How do you solve a problem like EDSA?

A hard question to ask, for sure, but one that is doubtless posed an infinite number of times by long suffering motorists and commuters passing on the storied Epifanio delos Santos Avenue’s stretch day after day, month after month, year after year.

From gaping potholes to knee-deep flash floods to harrumphing buses, EDSA has featured all sorts of perils and annoyances that defy logic as much as they threaten our safety and sanity. Countless ink and column inches have been devoted to lamenting the myriad of problems. We need a lasting victory; not a quick one that will be washed away by the next downpour.

At the fifth edition of Usapan AAP (Automobile Association Philippines) recently, the theme was “Road Safety and Traffic on the Tollways.” One of the panelists, Skyway O&M Corporation president Manuel Bonoan, was a past undersecretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (all told, he was at the agency for some 40 years). Bonoan has the unique perspective of both public and private sector operations towards safe and effective thoroughfares.

Prodded by forum moderator and fellow STAR scribe Cito Beltran, I thus asked Bonoan for his thoughts on our favorite topic and headache. How do we, indeed, solve a problem like EDSA — with the end view of and making it world-class? Perhaps, more realistically, can we elevate its quality to the expressways we shell out hard-earned pesos for?

Bonoan shared that when he was at the agency, the DPWH already had a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate the national road. “We had a program during my term… EDSA is the most polluted corridor in Metro Manila, and the assistance (from the Asian Development Bank) was related to reducing air pollution and improving air quality – simply because the emissions coming from vehicles are so bad.”

However, the plan was shelved. “It didn’t materialize because of issues, and the loan was canceled,” Bonoan rued. Regretfully, he revealed that “the plan would have made EDSA maintenance-free for the next 15 years.”

That is certainly a pipe dream to the EDSA of today – a malevolent patchwork of uneven asphalt, hastily filled potholes, and sporadically scheduled re-blocking. With bated breath and mumbled prayer, we wait and see if a downpour will render portions of the road impassable to all but they with the biggest vehicles and biggest egos.

To be fair, flyovers have improved travel time, but EDSA is still a far cry from the sexy Skyway that Bonoan oversees.

We’ve heard both snide remarks and diligent media reports posit the same thing: that taxpayers are being duped because EDSA is one big cash cow for contractors looking to earn a fast (and frequent) buck in collusion with government officials who award the contracts. We are overcharged for substandard work – and often, critics contend.

But Bonoan maintained there is a simple explanation for the sorry state of EDSA. “Its pavement is more than 40 years old — except for portions that have been re-blocked,” he said. “The greater part, about 70 percent, is 40 years old and beyond.”

You can just imagine the cumulative burden the road has carried through the years, he continued. “(EDSA) has gone past beyond its design life. That’s why it has started to crack.”

When asked if sectional re-blocking work is, indeed, the way to decisively improve EDSA without significantly disrupting traffic flow, Bonoan countered that it is merely a palliative solution.

There are no two ways about it; we need to rehabilitate EDSA completely – even if it means suffering the agony that goes with it. Bonoan said that drainage concerns (flooding, begone!) and interminable utilities digging should be addressed as well. Thankfully, he says that rehabilitation does not entail a total shutdown of EDSA.

“That can be done in sequence,” he said. A flexible pavement design can be used, and one lane at a time can be worked on to minimize inconvenience.

But, again, we can’t get around it. “One way or another, it has to be done,” Bonoan underscores. “Once it runs its design life and starts to crack, it will crack exponentially. You cannot prevent it. Tuluy-tuloy yan (It will be continuous). In maybe one or two years, everything will be gone.”

If that sounds so gloom and doom, well maybe it’s exactly what we need to hear. This might just shock us into swallowing the bitter pill, instead of dillydallying and weaseling out of a solution and leaving the problem to be rectified at a nebulous later date.

Now that’s stuff for the so-called straight and narrow.