City eng’r explains road closure
Sanchez said that they stopped the construction in August, but they allowed the contractor to operate again after it fixed the damaged portion of the road.
Despite that, councilor Sylvan Jakosalem said that they will still have the project investigated because until now it is still causing inconvenience. In fact, lots of complaints from the public, especially the motorists, have already been raised.
This is because Young Builders has closed a portion of the road that is affected by the construction.
The City Traffic Operations Management Board, in which both Sanchez and Jakosalem are members of, failed to discuss the matter during its regular board meeting yesterday because it was not included in the agenda.
Jakosalem, however, said that he was able to talk with Sanchez before the meeting started and was told that the City Engineer’s Office has already allowed construction works to continue after Young Builders complied with the conditions they have set.
In a separate interview, Sanchez said that the contractor has complied with their requirements and the only problem now is the complaint of the public on traffic because of the closed portion of the road.
But he explained that the problem on traffic is not caused by the portion of the road but by the private vehicles that park on the side of the two-lane road. Taxicabs, he specified, wait for passengers from the nearby hotel in said side of the road; thus, becoming major causes of traffic obstruction in the area.
“Only a portion of the road was closed and they have a permit to close a certain portion of the sidewalk. We allow them to close and fence it because it is also for the safety of the motorists,” Sanchez said.
He said what Citom should do now is look for ways to improve traffic flow in the area by prohibiting the parking of private vehicles and taxis along the road.
The construction works for the 25-storey hotel of the Cebu Renful Development Corp. started in May last year. In August, Young Builders - the contractor of the project - partially closed the road following a cave-in created by deep excavation that raised concern among the public.
After the investigation and request of Camputhaw barangay officials, the city stopped the project’s construction until the contractor fixes the affected portion of the road to ensure safety of motorists.
Jakosalem was the one who discovered the cave-in when he saw that half of the two-lane road is sealed off, and a third of the length of the road had also collapsed because of the excavation. Upon learning of this, he immediately reported what he saw to the mayor who tasked him to investigate on the matter.
The board recommended for the stoppage of construction works and demanded for the immediate fixing of the damaged portion of the road. — Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV
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