Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez has appealed for more patience from residents and motorists passing through Sucat Road which has earned the moniker “Little Edsa” for its notorious traffic jams.
“A little more sacrifice and residents of this city will soon have a comfortable journey on the city’s roads before the end of the year,” Olivarez said after officials of Maynilad Water Services Inc. assured him that its sewer network project would be over by October.
Maynilad said its West Zone concessionaire has laid down 34.6 kilometers or 45 percent of the 77-kilometer sewer line since April 2016.
Traffic jams plagued Sucat Road (officially called Dr. A. Santos Avenue) after the water concessionaire’s trucks and sewer pipes measuring 350 to 1,350 millimeters occupied up to two lanes of the busy thoroughfare from Soreena Avenue to C.P. Garcia Avenue Extension.
The mayor said his office has been flooded with numerous complaints from residents of nearby subdivisions and motorists, citing how the usual 15 to 20-minute drive on the road— from Ninoy Aquino Avenue in La Huerta to South Luzon Expressway in Sucat or vice-versa—has turned into a two-hour journey.
The return of the number coding scheme in October brought little relief as traffic worsened due to the lack of traffic enforcers, traffic signs and advisories from Maynilad’s contractor.
City information officer Mar Jimenez identified three chokepoints on Sucat Road: in front of SM Sucat in Barangay San Dionisio, Valley 1 and Fourth Estate subdivisions in Barangay Antonio.
Olivarez said he had asked Maynilad to finish the pipe-laying at the three points before classes start in June.
Other pipe-laying projects would be inside the subdivisions and not on Sucat Road which would help ease traffic.