Civil works for Cebu BRT start October

CEBU, Philippines — Civil works for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project are set to begin this October, the City Council’s committee on transportation chairman, Councilor James Cuenco, said.

Cuenco said there is already a winning bidder for phase 1, but he had no details as to who the winning bidder is.

“What I know for now is that the bidding process has already commenced and duna nay winning bidder and they will begin the civil works for phase 1 begins in October,” Cuenco told reporters yesterday.

Phase 1 involves construction of terminals from the South Bus Terminal to the Cebu Provincial Capitol via Osmeña Boulevard.

With no less than President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. giving orders for the prioritization of the Cebu BRT project, Cuenco said they are also hoping that the construction of Phases 2 and 3 will also be done soon.

According to Cuenco, phase 1 covers only a short distance and would just cause some inconvenience to the commuters if the two other phases will not be implemented right away too.

“Mubo raman gud ng phase 1. We don’t want nga ang mga passengers sakay sa South Bus unya hunong sa Capitol ang sakay na pud og lain… What we would want is lahos-lahos na gyud unta even if it takes time, at least makita na natong natrabaho na gyud tanan,” said Cuenco.

Originally, the Cebu BRT covered a 21.58-kilometer corridor route with 16 kilometers of segregated bus lanes from Barangay Bulacao to Ayala Center Mall along Natalio Bacalso Avenue, Osmeña Boulevard and N. Escario Street, but with the changes in the project’s technical design, CBRT now covers a 35-kilometer road corridor of which, 13.2 kilometers are dedicated busways from the South Road Properties (SRP) in the southeast to the north and, 22.1 kilometers of three segments considered as feeder services.

These feeder segments are Mambaling-Talisay stretching 8.7 km; SRP-Talisay with 8.2 km stretch; and, IT Park to Talamban stretching 5.2 kilometers.

While civil works yet to begin, Cuenco said he still wants the memorandum of agreement with the Department of Transportation in relation to the terminal at the SRP to be reviewed and revised as the agreement is one-sided and the city government will not gain any additional income from it.

“We cannot agree to that, one-sided kaayo. Imagine 25 years wala silay ibayad sa Sugbo, that’s prime property, 1.6 hectares, naa silay ipaabang, ipalease sa mga tenants didto sa terminal, unya silay mukuha sa rental, unya kita, wala ta, dili na pwede,” he said. — JMD (FREEMAN)