Koreans eye Trans-axial road project

A South Korean business group expressed interest in investing in theinvestment, Rep. Benhur Salimbangon of Cebu’s 4th district said yesterday.

He said the group inspected the proposed route and toured the province to determine whether they would conduct a full-blown feasibility study.

Salimbangon, who accompanied the group as they paid a courtesy call on Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III last Monday, said he flew to South Korea for a tour with the investors who showed him the country’s highway infrastructure.

During the tour, Salimbangon said the group explained the technology used in their road projects which they said could also be applied in realizing the province’s “tall highway.”

He said he was supposed to invite the group to Cebu but the group instead asked him to visit their country first.

“Our trip of about 150 kilometers only took an hour. The designs of their highways don’t depend on the thickness of the road but on the targeted speed of the car used,” Salimbangon said.

“Also, their highways are straight unlike ours which go up and down. It doesn’t go around in order to pass a mountain but instead they drilled through the mountain so that they can pass through,” he added.

The group brought engineers from South Korea last week to do an initial survey on the soil type, land elevation and terrain structure of Cebu’s towns and cities, Salimbangon said.

“If the study brings favorable results then they will come back,” he said. Salimbangon said he will then file a proposed bill before Congress to start the feasibility study of the highway project.

The project, he said, will be a “big development” for the province’s tourism industry since it will bring far-flung towns closer to Metro Cebu.

“We can be assured of the development in tourism which is our thrust as of present,” he said.

Davide has vowed to revive the highway project that was pushed by the late former Cebu vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr.

The highway would run across the central mountains of Cebu from tip to tip.

Sanchez saw it as a solution to the lack of development in rural areas.

Months before his death, Sanchez was able to submit to Malacañang the documents on the proposed project that would traverse areas from Daanbantayan town in the north to Santander town in the south.

One of the components of the Trans-Axial Highway is the access road to each town and city from the backbone of Cebu.

The provincial government ly spent P60 million for a pre-feasibility study under the administration of former governor and now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district but was frozen when the two officials had a falling out.

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said the proposal still needs to be further studied.

However, she said the province is open to a partnership with the private sector.

“In the first place, we need an alternative route to the towns. But until such time that we can talk to the South Korean investors, we will reserve our comments,” she told Cebu Daily News. Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos