Sales Bridge rehab over but pipe works set

First, the good news.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has nearly completed the rehabilitation of Sales Bridge in Pasay City, a project which was supposed to be completed last year.

However, the bad news is that motorists cannot look forward to any improvement in the traffic situation in the areas leading to and from the bridge just yet as a pipe replacement project will soon start on nearby Andrews Avenue.

In a radio interview on Sunday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino said that work on the Sales Interchange would end on March 15 as Maynilad Water Services Inc. and contractor DMCI began repairs on the water concessionaire’s service pipes.

The project is expected to last three months, he added.

A representative of the contractor for the bridge rehabilitation project, JDL Construction, assured the public that its project was “substantially completed” and would be ready by next month.

“The work [that remains to be done] is only minor, at the quadrant at the West Service road, Loop 2,” Rico Garcia of JDL Construction explained.

As for complaints about delays in the project which was launched in 2011, Garcia explained that they had to make sudden adjustments such as relocating an electrical post supplying power to Skyway; waiting for the DPWH to approve the construction of a retaining wall which will encroach on a portion of the West Service Road; replacing pilfered equipment and waiting for the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to finish ongoing excavations in the same area.

Meanwhile, Yolanda Lucas of Maynilad said they were hoping to start replacing and repairing by March 15 their service pipes on the 1.8-kilometer-long stretch of Andrews Avenue from the Newport City area to the Domestic Road.

Lucas said the project would be the last phase of Maynilad’s repairs on the avenue as the company had “fully restored” its pipes on the 1.1-km-long stretch in front of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

“One of our main objectives here is to replace the pipes, found to be the major cause of leaks along Andrews. The pipes are already 30 to 40 years old; already weak and insufficient to serve the Parañaque area. They need to be replaced,” Lucas added.

At the same time, she downplayed the MMDA’s concerns that Maynilad would dig up the avenue’s center lane as she assured the agency that DMCI and the water company would “minimize diggings.”

She added that they would abide by an agreement with the MMDA that diggings would be conducted only from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and that before dawn, they would temporarily restore the road.

“We will only dig up what we can cover by morning,” she said.