‘Are Edsa alternate routes ready for 100,000 cars?’

“They should make first ensure that the roads that they had identified as alternative [routes] are in order.”

Neomie Recio, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Traffic Engineering Center head, on Sunday said in a radio program that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should first make sure that the 52 alternate routes it earlier listed were capable of handling around 100,000 vehicles.

This was in case the rehabilitation of Edsa, the busiest

thoroughfare in Metro Manila, would push through, she added.

According to Recio, the DPWH included in the list almost all roads in the Edsa area. “But what will happen if these are the same roads which are being renovated by their district offices?” she said.

The DPWH’s plan to rehabilitate the 23-kilometer-long Edsa which was supposed to start in May and would have cost P3.7 billion had been put on hold temporarily by President Benigno Aquino III due to the inconvenience it would pose to motorists.

At the same time, Recio pushed anew for the agency’s long-proposed idea for the construction of a bridge over Pasig River from Sta. Monica to Lawton Avenue. “It can serve as an alternative route for motorists who want to avoid [heavy traffic on] C-5 Road and Guadalupe bridges,” she said.