More than 200 families face eviction as Kennon Road undergoes repairs

BAGUIO LANDMARK The more than 100-year-old Kennon Road, stretching 32 kilometers through Benguet’s mountains, is the shortest and most scenic route to Baguio City from La Union province. A lion head, carved out of a boulder along the zigzag road, is one of the most famous landmarks of Baguio. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO/CONTRIBUTOR

BAGUIO CITY—The rehabilitation of Kennon Road may require the eviction of families living along this scenic access route to this city as government engineers repair fragile mountain slopes that required its closure in 2018, the Department of Public Works and Highways officials (DPWH) said.

About 280 households have been issued notices for occupying Kennon Road’s right of way spanning the road’s tourist view deck at Camp 8 down to the city’s border with Tuba town, Benguet province, according to Arnold Dacwag and Edgardo Enriquez of the DPWH Baguio district engineering office (BDEO).

They said removing dwellers from the buffer zones of Kennon Road would make travel safer although the DPWH and the city engineering office were still examining their papers before the government started the expropriation of their titled lands before 1975.

The DPWH has restricted access to Kennon Road due to erosion on sections that are triggered by strong rains. Repair work for 25 critical areas has taken more than a year for a two-phase rehabilitation program that costs P3.4 billion.

On schedule

BDEO officials said work on 14 sections of the road was on schedule.

Considered the most expensive infrastructure project by the American colonial government, Kennon Road was opened by a multinational work crew in 1905.Experts mapped out the geologically hazardous sections of the road as Baguio was being restored after the 1990 Luzon earthquake.

In July 2018, a rockslide buried a sport utility vehicle, prompting a review of Kennon Road’s stability. The DPWH drew up rehabilitation plans for nine critical sections of the road.

But more weak sections were found after a reassessment was conducted by the DPWH Cordillera due to frequent erosion during strong rains. —VINCENT CABREZA