A rotunda in the SRP? (Part 1 of 3)

I had to admit it totally took me by surprise --firstly that it was proposed at all, and secondly by the ease with which the legislative body of Cebu City approved it so fast, apparently without any discussion on the technical and economic merits of the proposal. Or was there any, but our media nowadays seems to be withholding the more important details that should have been analyzed prior to approval. If there were, the public is entitled to know, especially the arguments thereof.

I’m surprised because I’m familiar with the SRP from the time it landed on my desk almost 20 years ago for NEDA evaluation. And never in those 20 years have I seen, or heard, of a rotunda planned anywhere there, at least the rotunda we are familiar with. Of course, there is already an existing rotunda there, schematically, the concept of which may be unfamiliar to non-engineers. But as shown in the news, that certainly was new. This might take three write-ups to unpack and analyze.

What do we have here? A proposed rotunda at the T-intersection of the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR) and F. Vestil Street. Vestil is a 2x2 road (two lanes each direction) while CSCR is currently 3x3. Traffic sometimes does not follow these and become 3x3 and 4x4 for each when there is heavy congestion because Filipinos don’t want to wait and build new queues instead. As shown in the plans, the rotunda is placed at the T-intersection, but CSCR is already 4x4 while Vestil is depicted as 3x3. In other words, the DPWH proposal is not only for a rotunda but to expand both by two lanes each, one lane per direction.

There are two questions that need to be asked. First, is the proposal better than the existing situation, which we have already experienced --either to have a traffic light there or, as currently done, use the two U-turn slots at either end. It has to be evaluated against both. The second question is whether it is better than other alternative options that may be available – like building two left-turn flyovers to decrease the conflict points and increase intersection speed. Both questions require two analyses – technical and economic.

The rotunda center island will be built with a 40-meter diameter. Unless I read it wrong, there will be seven circular lanes going around the 40-meter center island to cater to the 3x3 traffic from Vestil and the 4x4, mostly through-traffic of CSCR. Now compare this to Fuente Osmeña Circle: six circular lanes going around a 120-m center island to cater to the 4x4 traffic of Osmeña Boulevard, 2x3 traffic of General Maxilom Avenue, 2x2 traffic of B. Rodriguez Avenue, and that 1x1 traffic both of Don Gil Garcia Street and Fuente-Don Marian Cui Access Road.

Even without the scientific evaluation, we can already do a preliminary comparison since we only have one rotunda to compare it to – Fuente Osmeña. And most of us know how Fuente traffic looks and behaves. Those of us who drive through there know what it's like, and we will know what is and what can be possible and what won’t. (To be continued)