LIGHT traffic on a holiday yesterday reduced the impact of the first day of closure of one lane of the UN Avenue near the foot of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge in Mandaue City.
The real test will come tomorrow, when the regular flow of private and public vehicles will travel through the 1-kilometer section from Plaridel Street leading to the bridge.
Road rehabilitation and concreting will last 180 days but upon Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes, insistence, the project will end in November or before the Nov. 21 national thanksgiving Mass for Pedro Calungsod.
Both lanes from corner Plaridel St. and U.N. Avenue to Lapu-Lapu City are still open to vehicles.
Only the lane from Lapu-Lapu City going to Mandaue was noted to have some congestion during peak hours from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Yesterday was a holiday in observance of Eid’l Fitr, the end of the Muslim’s holy month of Ramadhan..
“Maybe the weight of traffic congstion can be observed on Wednesday after the holiday,” said Mandaue traffic official Edwin Ermac.
Extra enforcers were fielded to implement the “no stopping zone” along UN Avenue./Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza