Rep. Dizon wants ‘tri-level interchange’ a flagship project of BBM

CEBU, Philippines — Mandaue City Lone District Representative Emmarie Ouano-Dizon has sought the support of the Department of Tourism to make the “tri-level interchange” a flagship project of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

Ouano-Dizon met the other day with Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco along with the officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways-7.

“This is in order to increase tourist satisfaction in Cebu, we must help solve bottleneck traffic, among others,” said Ouano-Dizon.

Ouano-Dizon has filed House Bill 1098 for the establishment of the tri-level interchange at the corner of U.N. Avenue and M.C. Briones in Mandaue City.

If approved, she said, this infrastructure project will ease the traffic congestion in this major corner going to northern Cebu and the corner leading to the Marcelo Fernan Bridge linking the mainland and Mactan Island where the Mactan Cebu International Airport is located.

“With Secretary Cristina Frasco's aggressive programs to strengthen tourism in the country, Cebu would need projects such as the tri-level project in Mandaue City to bolster the tourists' experience,” said Ouano-Dizon in a statement.

In her previous term, Ouano-Dizon filed the said bill which was passed at the House of Representatives. A parallel bill was approved by the Senate committee on public works, but was not presented for second and third reading at the plenary for lack of time.

In her explanatory note of the proposed bill, Ouano-Dizon cited that according to initial results of a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the unresolved traffic congestion in Metro Cebu has resulted in at least a billion pesos in economic losses a day.

“Cebu continues to suffer from the worsening traffic problem, and road congestion has been identified as one of the major problems in the bustling metropolis. According to a study, at least a hundred and thirty-two million pesos worth of man-hours was wasted daily due to traffic congestion,” Ouano-Dizon stated.

This problem, she said, is apparent in the area along M.C. Briones Street and U.N. Avenue in Mandaue City, which is a major thoroughfare.

“This part of Mandaue City has some of the worst traffic in Metro Cebu and is a traffic choke point as this is a major connecting point not only to the Mactan Island but also to the North and South of Cebu,” she said.

Ouano-Dizon added that the usual commute that normally takes 10 to 15 minutes within the city now stretches up to an hour or more and that the existing road infrastructure simply cannot cope with the growing number of vehicles.

She further said with the expansion of the airport and the expected resurgence of tourism industry, coupled with the traffic volume towards this area, these factors all lead to the imperative need for this tri-level interchange to alleviate the monstrous traffic congestion that has affected all sectors of society. —GMR (FREEMAN)