City to build new Carbon Market Unit II

A new structure will rise anytime this year to replace Carbon Market Unit II which was burned in a fire about 13 years ago.

Engineer Joel Reston of the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) said they are about to complete the program of works for the project’s pile driving or foundation which is estimated at P65 million.

Once completed, the work would be bid out to a contractor.

Reston said the P170 million funding appropriated for the project was just enough for its foundations and frames.

He said additional funding is needed for the project’s completion which would include the establishment of a ramp that would bring vehicles to its second floor.

The City Council appropriated P100 million for the Carbon Market Unit II reconstruction project.

Funding of P70 million was earlier appropriated and remained unspent.

Engineer June Nadine Sison, head of DEPW’s construction division said, the reconstruction project would need at least P300 million.

Sison said the project was only estimated at P165 million in 2008, the last time DEPW revised the project costing.

“Because of price escalation, the project is now estimated to cost P300 million. We just have to revise its costing before we start its implementation,” she said.

Former mayor and now south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña wanted the unit II reconstruction project equipped with a ramp to provide access to the building’s second floor stalls.

Mayor Michael Rama had another market design made by architecture students of the University of San Carlos.

But Sison said they would implement the project using Osmeña’s design which is the approved project design.

Sison said the project implementation would start with its foundation works and the establishment of ground floor stalls.

When additional funding will be available, work on the ramp and the building’s second floor would follow.

Councilors assured DEPW that additional funding would be set aside for the market reconstruction project after the P170 budget is spent and when the city government raised more than the 5.2 billion-budget for 2012.

Sison said the market authority would determine the number of stalls at the new unit II.

Pending the implementation of the reconstruction project, vendors displaced by the 1998 fire now sell their goods on the sidewalk.