Brace for heavier traffic on Commonwealth Avenue
FROM BAD TO WORSE The patience of motorists will be tested to the limit with the closure starting on Feb. 23 of the Tandang Sora flyover and intersection. —RICHARD A. REYES
Traffic on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City will become heavier with the closure of both the Tandang Sora flyover and intersection starting next week until 2020 to give way to the construction of one of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 7 stations in the area.
Starting at 11 p.m. on Feb. 23, the four-lane flyover and intersection will be off-limits to all vehicles as MRT 7 contractor, EEI Corp., begins demolishing the 260-meter-long flyover and building the Tandang Sora station, its elevated guide way and a pocket track for the train system.
The demolition work is estimated to eat up two lanes on the westbound side (toward Quezon Memorial Avenue) and one lane on the eastbound side (toward Fairview).
This will reduce to 13 the lanes open to motorists in the Tandang Sora area: six for those headed for Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC) and seven for those bound for Fairview.
The closure will last until the MRT 7’s targeted completion date of 2020, affecting the more than 100,000 motorists plying Commonwealth Avenue on top of the 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles crossing the Tandang Sora intersection daily.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) general manager Jojo Garcia told reporters on Thursday that as a “permanent solution” to traffic in the area, he had asked EEI Corp. to consider building a two-way elevated U-turn slot.
Garcia said that the U-turn slot, to be made of steel, could be erected within three months. He ordered the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center to look for the best possible site for the structure.
In the meantime, affected motorists would be diverted to a temporary U-turn slot around 500 m away from the Tandang Sora intersection.
Vehicles coming from Katipunan Avenue should turn right on Commonwealth Avenue (Fairview bound) and take the U-turn slot near Home Depot and then turn right again to Tandang Sora Avenue.
For those coming from Tandang Sora, they should turn right on Commonwealth (QMC bound) and take the U-turn slot near Microtel and then turn right again to Katipunan.
