While Cebu City officials and businessmen are petitioning President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to cancel two flyover projects in their city, it’s a different story in neighboring Mandaue City.
Rep. Gabriel Luis Quisumbing of Cebu’s 6th district said the tri-level flyover that will rise in United Nations (UN) Avenue and Plaridel Cansaga Bay Bridge in the middle or end of next year will help decongest traffic in Mandaue City.
While Quisumbing and Mandaue City officials led by Mayor Jonas Cortes supported the tri-level flyover project, urban planners and Road Revolution proponents called on city and Metro Cebu residents to oppose the project.
“If we want to be an international destination we need to have world class roads. I pushed for the tri-level (flyover) at United Nations Avenue. We have to solve the traffic since the airport isn’t going anywhere,” Quisumbing told reporters yesterday.
Quisumbing said the UN Avenue intersection is the busiest intersection in Metro Cebu since it’s one of the access roads going to Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and the mainland of Lapu-Lapu City.
The UN intersection is a traffic chokepoint and considered the most important intersection since it leads towards the northern part of Cebu.
Quisumbing cited Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo’s visit to Cebu to illustrate the severity of Metro Cebu’s traffic congestion.
He said it took Domingo two hours to reach a Cebu City Hotel from the airport due to a heavy downpour.
“That won’t be the case with the flyover since it will decongest traffic,” Quisumbing said.
The tri-level intersection costs P300 million and will be completed in 18 months.
The project was opposed by urban planners and Road Revolution proponents.
Urban planner and architect Joy Martinez-Onozawa said more flyovers in Metro Cebu won’t result in less traffic.
“Flyovers are the last resort, that’s why its proposal is rarely taken up on other countries,” Onozawa told Cebu Daily News over the phone.
She said building more flyovers in Metro Cebu would affect the aesthetic quality of the area and will make the roads “ugly.”
“Flyovers only worsen traffic. I hope they know what they’re doing,” Onozawa said.
Lawyer Tara Rama, one of the convenors of the Road Revolution Project, said Quisumbing should observe the procedural requirements of the Local Government Code which called for consultations and forum on the barangay level with the affected communities.
Rama said local officials should focus on creating a masterplan for roads in Mandaue so the solutions would be well-studied and used as a long term project.
“I hope the Mandauehanons will stand against it,” Rama said.
Both Onozawa and Rama supported movements in opposing the two flyover projects in Cebu City.
Instead of building flyovers, Onozawa suggested rehabilitation of roads to make it wider and additional pedestrian and bike lanes.
She said only five percent of the Cebuanos own cars which raises the need for more bike lanes to encourage residents to use bicycles, skates and skateboards for transportation.
The budget for the first phase of the tri-level intersection was approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and will be soon implemented by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) national office.
The proposed tri-level flyover project in U.N. Avenue and Plaridel Cansaga Bay Bridge road in Mandaue City will feature three levels of roads.
The top level is a one-way, two-lane street for vehicles coming from the Mactan Cebu International Airport and leads to left of Plaridel Street towards Cebu City.
The second level is the surface intersection for vehicles from Plaridel Street and bound for the Cansaga bridge. Vehicles from Cansaga could turn right to Metro Gaisano Mandaue or left to Lapu-Lapu City.
The third level is an underpass for vehicles coming from Mandaue Gaisano and Plaridel Street going to Lapu-Lapu City. The area will still be passable when construction starts.
The tri-level flyover project was designed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) after a series of surveys and traffic counts.
The intersection was designed to accommodate traffic 10 years after the project is completed.
The project was endorsed by the Regional Development Council in Central Visayas. /Reporters Candeze R. Mongaya and Jucell Marie P. Cuyos