Bicol’s billion-peso projects in full swing

A billion-peso road network will link Legazpi City and the rest of Albay and nearby provinces to the new Bicol International Airport (BIA).

Dubbed “GuiCaDaLe” (Guinobatan-Camalig-Daraga-Legazpi), the project is expected to be completed by 2016, or a year before the completion of the airport in Albay’s Daraga town, according to Lucia Castañeda, information officer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bicol.

Inadequate funding

The BIA, which was started in 2007 during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is being built at a cost of P4.6 billion on a 180-hectare property straddling five villages in Daraga, 10 kilometers from Legazpi. It was scheduled for completion in 2016 but was delayed by inadequate funding and questions involving its proponents.

The provincial government has so far bought 139.8 ha of land as airport site and is finalizing the acquisition of the remaining area, said Judy Bala of the provincial planning committee. Land acquisition for the airport complex is now 94-percent complete, she said.

Beneficial to provinces

Strategically located at the heart of Bicol, the airport is envisioned to benefit almost all the provinces of the region. It will replace the Legazpi City Domestic Airport, which has no night landing facility and is vulnerable to bad weather conditions, resulting in flight cancellations.

Gov. Joey Salceda has pushed for the construction of the international airport amid the rapid growth of tourism in Bicol, particularly in Albay.

On the other hand, the P1.262-billion GuiCaDaLe is a 194-km road project that traverses a plateau toward neighboring Sorsogon province, It has 16 major road sections and 12 arterial roads, according to its project brief.

Safe design

Salceda, who also chairs the Regional Development Council (RDC), said the project was designed “to encourage economic activities safe from the threats posed by Mayon Volcano eruptions, lahar flows, flooding and tsunamis.”

Ester Vargas, DPWH regional planning section chief, said passengers going to the BIA could still use the national road in Albay. But taking the GuiCaDaLe platform will be more efficient, however.

17 minutes from Legazpi

Vargas said it would take 17 minutes to reach the new airport from Legazpi using the existing road system, but travel time would drop to just about 6 minutes using the GuiCaDaLe access road via Barangay Puro in Legazpi.

So far, the DPWH has completed the 1.713-km four-lane access road that will connect the BIA to the Maharlika Highway in Tabon-tabon, Daraga.