Session Road, park rehab expected before flower fest

WORKERS on Friday begin to repave downtown Session Road in Baguio, one of the summer capital’s streets that almost every motorist needs to drive through to reach other parts of the city. Work is being rushed so it could be opened for the annual Baguio Flower Festival in February. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—They were not aiming to break any records, but government engineers have worked out what are probably the fastest infrastructure projects in the city for January due to the Baguio Flower Festival that would start next month.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is scheduled to repave downtown Session Road this week, which would not only affect traffic flow here but also delay the annual Panagbenga street dancing and float parades if work is not completed before Feb. 1.

Ireneo Gallato, DPWH district engineer for Baguio, said the agency has tasked a contractor to work 24 hours paving Session Road using a special quick-dry cement so portions of the road may be used by motorists eight hours after these are paved.

The dredging of tourist-drawing Burnham Lake is being hastened so it would be reopened by Jan. 25, Gallato said.

He said a product called “Instapave” would be applied on 700 meters of Session Road, which was so named because it led to the sessions of the first Philippine Commission in the early 1900s.

“The roads need improving. But we will make sure the projects are completed before the festival,” Gallato said on Tuesday.

The DPWH was the subject of outrage during the first months of 2012 when it undertook road projects that overlapped with the festival.

Most of these road projects involved national arterial roads. The DPWH intends to pave roads of this classification by 2014 while secondary national roads are supposed to be repaved and improved by 2016.

In 2011, the agency was also criticized for paving arterial roads during the monsoon season.

DPWH officials said the much-criticized projects of 2011 and 2012 improved 535 kilometers of national roads and 1,034 km of secondary roads in the country.

Gallato said the DPWH has allocated P380 million to complete public works projects in the city, including the P20-million budget for Session Road’s upkeep.

Work on Session Road would have started on Tuesday but it has been delayed to allow the government to improve a traffic rerouting system, Gallato said. Most motorists travel through Session Road to reach other sections of the city.

Gallato said Session Road would not be closed when the contractor begins work on the road. Instead, he said the DPWH had proposed to gradually apply Instapave by lanes, allowing motorists limited access.  Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon