Heavy traffic slows down aid convoy

People heading to northern Cebu are advised to add more than an hour to their usual travel time due to traffic caused by the long line of trucks transporting relief goods to typhoon-stricken areas there since last week.

Construction work by the Cebu Manila Water District Consortium in Danao City is a “contributing factor” but is not the main cause of the traffic congestion, CMWDI project manager Jonathan Urban said.

“The project is a contributory factor (since it) decreased the width of the road by less than two meters at two locations. The inconvenience that it is causing is already expected even before the project commenced and for this we would like to apologize,” Urbano said.

Provincial Information Officer Ethel Natera yesterday said traffic started to build up at Mandaue City where a lot of trucks carrying relief goods were passing through.

There are only two lanes heading to and from northern Cebu.

“It was just the volume of the people that were coming in to help out in the north which was really a lot,” she said.

Natera likewise said the CMWDI project in Danao City did not aggravate the heavy traffic.

“It’s unfair to blame one company for the traffic. We even passed by Danao fast,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Natera also went to Bogo City last Saturday to check on the relief operations undertaken by the Israel Defense Force.

Choke points include areas in Lilo-an, Compostela, Carmen and Bogo City.

Natera said it took her and some staff members four hours on board a private vehicle to reach Bogo City.

Parked vehicles and tricycles near the public market constrict traffic flow especially in the mornings when people head to northern Cebu.

Last Saturday, bumper-to-bumper traffic was experienced in Lilo-an.

Natera said trucks slowed down to drop their donations in different locations in Bogo City. “Even after Danao, it was still traffic,” she added.

Danao City Mayor Ramon “Nito” Durano III will reportedly meet with CMWDI representatives tomorrow.

The consortium’s contractor, JH Patawaran Construction Co. is doing the restoration works after laying down all the pipes for bulk water distribution. The project is a joint venture project with the Cebu provincial government.

In order to ease traffic congestion, Urbano said the contractor already poured in concrete and the roads may be passable in a few more days.

More traffic aides are also needed to conduct traffic, he said. /Marian Z. Codilla and Peter L. Romanillos