Mayor: Flyovers no, traffic master plan, yes

About P1.3 billion worth of flyover projects are planned for Cebu City, but Mayor Michael Rama will have none of it.

In a letter to Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson, Rama called for a transportation master plan to be completed instead to “solve the horrendous traffic problem” in Cebu City.

A flyover is being built in the junction of MJ Cuenco and General Maxilom Avenue with Gorordo and Archbishop Reyes Avenue scheduled for implementation within this year.

Rama said what is needed are alternative solutions to the traffic congestion in the city, not additional two-lane flyovers.

He said the projects were budgeted without proper study and traffic analysis from experts.

He was backed by the Banilad-Talamban Task Force, a group tasked to oversee, coordinate and ensure the viability of traffic-related projects and programs in the area.

Rama said the construction of flyovers not only aggravate traffic congestion but will also affect the business climate in the areas where these infrastructure are built.

“What is really needed is the road widening because flyovers does not solve the (traffic) problem. If we continue to construct flyovers, a lot of businesses will be affected,” Rama told Cebu Daily News.

In a separate interview, businessman Bunny Pages, a member of the Task Force, said a traffic masterplan should be done to avoid unnecessary government spending.

“The clamor is not to do so much until we plan,” Pages said.

About P50 million are set aside for the proposed flyover along General Maxilom and M.J. Cuenco Avenue with an additional P250 million set for the road right of way.

The flyover project along Gorordo Avenue and Archbishop Reyes Avenue will cost P160 million.

The two junctions are just a kilometer apart. They were planned in 1998 and included in the General Appropriations Act last year.

Pages told Cebu Daily News the existing traffic masterplan for Cebu City was made way back in 1978.

“The business sector and the private sector suggest that we make another transportation masterplan that will include the entire Metro Cebu,” he said.

He said urban planners and experts in the transportation field should do a study to help the government minimize its spending.

The saved budget may be realigned to fund drainage project among others, Pages said.

“We recently learned that six more two-lane flyovers are being planned in Cebu City at a cost of P1.3 billion to the detriment of cheaper and effective alternative solutions,” a resolution sent by the Task Force stated.

Pages said based on his research it is only the Philippines which has a two-lane flyover in a four-lane cross intersection.

He said solutions such as widening of existing roads and alternate routes, setting up of flaring intersections, pocket lanes and sidewalk improvements are among the alternatives that don’t cost too much to the government.

“It’s not that we are against these but we just want a study to be implemented,” Pages said. /Reporter Marian Z. Codilla