Climate-sensitive upland roads seen

LAGAWE, Ifugao—The isolation of Ifugao due to two successive typhoons last week has convinced the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to design climate-sensitive mountain roads, Ifugao Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr. said on Tuesday.

Baguilat and Governor Eugene Balitang went to Metro Manila to discuss proposals with Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson that would make the country’s highways, particularly upland roads, strong enough to withstand stronger typhoons and heavy and sustained rainfall.

Strong winds and heavy rains accompanying Typhoon “Pedring” triggered landslides that buried and eroded Ifugao’s mountain roads, cut power and telecommunications lines, and destroyed crops.

Singson’s primary consideration was ensuring that runoff rainwater would not damage mountain roads, so he drew up plans for wrapping mountainsides with coconet (or coconut fiber), Baguilat said.

Coconet

Coconet is a biodegradable net made of coconut husk fiber, which engineers have started to use to hold back mountainside erosion.

Developed in 2006 by a Filipino agriculturist, coconet was already being considered by Singson in 2010 as a component of all mountain engineering projects because it also allowed plants and grass to grow through the nets to help hold loosened soil by their roots, documents from the DPWH Cordillera office show.

Baguilat said the DPWH was also planning to build impounding dams on mountaintops and other elevated areas along mountain routes to reduce the volume of runoff water during the monsoon season.

Juan Ngalob, Cordillera director of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said the DPWH had been spending the same amount of money on mountain roads, which it appropriated for lowland roads, “so it needs to study the true cost of maintaining a mountain highway.”

The Cordillera Road Improvement Project (CRIP), a banner project for connecting all provinces in the region, has cost the government billions of pesos since 1988, but has not yet been completed, he said.

“The Philippine highway system in north Luzon was not designed to cope with calamities,” Baguilat said.

“Aside from the frequent landslides, there is only one major road artery to Cagayan Valley [so] if Carranglan (the mountain road that links Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya) is closed, nine provinces of Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera are quickly affected,” Baguilat said.

Stranded

Baguilat left the province with complaints from people who were stranded when strong rains dumped by Pedring on September 28 destroyed the Burnay Bridge in the capital of Lagawe, crippling travel to the interior areas.

Five foreign tourists stranded in a hotel in Banaue town had to pay $8,000 (P351,920) for a helicopter to pick them up because they could not wait for government relief workers to open the roads, he said.

Government engineers and workers are racing against time to put up a temporary replacement of the bridge that links Ifugao to Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera before another typhoon arrives.

Edilberto Carabbacan, public works director in the Cordillera, said he expected a “Mabbey contact module” bridge to rise within 10 days to replace the Burnay Bridge connecting Tungngod and Poblacion East villages here.

“This type of bridge normally takes around seven days to assemble. But given the difficulty of access to the area, as well as with poor weather, we gave it a safe timetable of about 10 days,” he said.

The DPWH had allotted P1 million for the construction of the single-lane temporary bridge to be used until a permanent replacement has been built.

Temporary bridge

“As of now, there is no assurance yet [as to when the new one will be built], but we have gotten word that this is a DPWH priority and funds will be made available for this out of concern that Ifugao and Mt. Province at the moment are isolated,” Carabbacan said.

The temporary bridge means a lot to Ifugao residents like Hingyonstore owner Emetrio Natividad, 45, who on Monday crossed the river carrying a sack of rice.

“I have to carry all these goods on my own as it would entail expense on my part to hire a porter,” he said.

Alternative routes to Lagawe via Kiangan town were opened to light vehicles on Saturday and Friday, said Clarence Baguilat, Cordillera director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.