Bad news from Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson. After failing to get the go-ahead of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Department of Public Works and Highways has shelved its planned P3.74-billion major rehabilitation of the entire stretch of the 23-kilometer Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, or Edsa.
In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the DPWH head said on Sunday “the whole stretch of Edsa no more.”
However, he said they might push through with the rehabilitation of the Makati portion of the much-delayed project – from Guadalupe to Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, or Buendia “if the MMDA will allow us.”
“We have been ready (to implement the Edsa project) since last year,” Singson pointed out.
As early as April 2013, the agency had done the project’s detailed engineering design, said Reynaldo Tagudando, director of the DPWH office in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Under the original DPWH plan, the Edsa project was supposed to be completed by February 2015.
The MMDA, which has the final say on all government road projects in the NCR, has asserted the project may cause widespread traffic jams as it coincides with other major road repair works in the metropolis.
Other projects that have also been put on the back burner include the construction of the Edsa-Taft Avenue flyover, the restoration of Taft Avenue as a major thoroughfare and the Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue vehicle underpass.
In April, Singson said they had put on hold the project’s bidding and procurement process as some project details were “still for discussion” with the MMDA.
Earlier, he told this paper the project would finally start in the first quarter of 2015. He also disclosed that the stretch of Edsa from Guadalupe to Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City would be the pilot area for the series of road works, which was first announced by the department two years ago.
Singson had expressed confidence the Edsa project would be completed before the end of President Aquino’s term in June 2016.
“We are confident we still can improve the road quality of Edsa,” he had said as he also revealed the DPWH was “looking at new technologies on pavement improvement” that could be used in the project.
These technologies include the high-grade polymer modified bitumen, or PMB asphalt from Singapore, according to Singson.
The PMB is said to be “more rigid and durable, as well as highly resistant to crack and other road deformations, making it applicable for very stressed pavements and roads with high traffic volume,” said another DPWH official.
Tagudando believes “asphalt overlay is the next best thing to the concrete reblocking and piecemeal repairs on Edsa.”
In January 2013, Singson told a news conference at the DPWH head office in Manila that transforming Edsa into a road as “smooth” as the North and South Luzon Expressways could become a “concrete reality” in two years.
He noted that the former Highway 54’s deterioration over the decades showed that “our road standards have really gone down.”
“Only piecemeal repairs were done there. Yet, we can equal that of both the NLEx and SLEx,” he added.