Kennon Road reopening eyed to ease Baguio traffic

SHORTEST ROUTE | The 118-year-old Kennon Road, stretching 33.5 kilometers from Rosario, La Union, is the shortest route to Baguio City. The use of this scenic mountain road, shown in this 2015
photo, has been regulated due to its rehabilitation. (File photo by EV ESPIRITU / Inquirer Northernn Luzon)

BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — A local task force is studying whether it can reopen the historic Kennon Road to motorists and ease daily traffic jams as the Christmas season brings back tourists to the summer capital.

The Joint Inter-Agency Task Force Kennon, which is chaired by Office of Civil Defense Cordillera regional director Albert Mogol, has inspected the 33.5-kilometer road now undergoing repairs and has been closed to traffic, except for residents along the road, according to regional officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) who attended this week’s council session.

While it remains the shortest route to Baguio, the 118-year-old Kennon has constantly been damaged by rockslides each time a strong typhoon or a long period of rain hits the city. At the start of December, mayors of Baguio and the nearby Benguet towns of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay asked the DPWH to open Kennon again.

READ: Baguio, Benguet towns link up to protect Kennon watershed

READ: Gov’t spends P3B for Kennon Road rehab but more work needed to open route

With Kennon Road closed, heavy traffic flow has been concentrated at major intersections leading from Marcos Highway (also known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway, at 47.1 km) and Naguilian Road (Quirino Highway, 39.11 km), said Police Col. Zacarias Dausen, chief of the traffic enforcement unit of the Baguio City police, on Wednesday.

Weekend visitors also trigger gridlocks on roads leading to tourist spots. The Baguio police office does not have the latest vehicle count of motorists driving up to the city, although the DPWH logged 743,000 vehicles that entered the city from Christmas last year to the New Year holiday week at the start of 2023.

Dausen has opened up “bakasyon (vacation) lanes” to reroute travelers bound for areas outside Baguio, such as Sagada in Mountain Province.

But opening Kennon would still be necessary to manage Christmas traffic, he added.