One lane open in damaged Borbon road

NE lane is open to traffic in the road section that collapsed in Borbon town, north Cebu during Tuesday’s downpour.

Workers dumped soil there yesterday after half of the road caved in during tropcial depression Ramon, which left the area impassable to traffic until Wednesday afternoon.

Municipal administrator Rolando Bucog said more soil still has to be added to stabilize the road in sitio Canlagang, barangay Don G. Antigua.

He met yesterday with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which maintains the national highway.

Bucog said that the DPWH is considering making an alternate road that would not be affected by soil movement and erosion during heavy rains, or making a bridge and adding more box culverts below.

“For the meantime, the DPWH will focus on repairing the one lane road,” Bucog said.

The one lane road minimized the traffic in the area, which is the main road to the north most part of Cebu.

Borbon is considered a landslide prone town with several underground caves, sink holes and soil cavities based on a geo-hazard map of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7.

DENR 7 spokesman Eddie Llamedo said a team will be sent today from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to assess the damage.

They may also recommend for the evacuation of 20 houses near the caved in section.

“It might be an active landslide and would create cracks towards the nearby houses, “ Llamedo said.

Immediately after the cave-in, Borbon residents helped stranded passengers get across in a demonstration of the “bayanihan” spirit.

They helped carry the packages bus passengers, including bananas, sacks of rice, and boxes of vegetables and fruits.

Passengers from northern Cebu had to jump off the bus and trek across the damaged road to get another ride in vehicles waiting on the other side heading to Cebu City.

The road was impassable for 17 hours amidst the heavy downpour and strong winds brought by typhoon ‘Ramon’.

“It’s like a fiesta here. We are helping each other but some passenger give us P5 each time we help. I earned P50 more for this day,” said resident Ernesto Butiya.

Butiya’s familiy was one of 20 households in the area. He said they were busy since Wednesday morning helping passengers carry their cargo across the road.

Meanwhile, 54-year-old resident Pablo Caminos said this part of the highway would often cave in during heavy rains.

“I’ve been living here all my life. Every year we always experience that,” Caminos told Cebu Daily News.

Caminos said that before the road was paved, part of the highway was the path of runoff water from the mountains. In 2002, the DPWH cemented the area and placed concrete box culverts to provide an alternate route for water. Since then, the road damaged was minimized.

But last 2005, he said DPWH widened the road moved the box culverts. After that, the road was weakened. He said they last experienced similar damage as Tuesday’s in 200, when the road caved in during a downpour. Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya