Tuesday, January 13, 2009 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
CEBU CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday expressed dismay over the slow progress of work in the P2.308-billion Cebu North Coastal Road Project (CNCRP).
Arroyo has ordered overtime work on the project and told the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to disqualify the contractor if it can't catch up.
"My God, this is a major project and it's been a year," Arroyo told Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane in front of reporters Monday.
Arroyo was in the area in April 2007 for the project's groundbreaking. She was briefed on the project Monday morning by Ebdane.
"So, you will be working three shifts a day, seven days a week," Arroyo interrupted Ebdane.
The President then ordered Ebdane to disqualify the local contractor if they can't catch up with the work schedule, saying a year was wasted by the delay.
Ebdane assured the President the project will be finished within 2009. He later told reporters that the delay was caused by the rising cost of construction materials and the time it took for the project's budget to be released.
The project's target date of completion is in April 2010, according to Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Chief Cerge Remonde, who also visited the project site in the third week of May last year to look into the delay.
The delay then was blamed on unfinished road right-of-way (RROW) acquisition, the issuance of permit to cut trees, delays in the delivery of major equipment and frequent rains that rendered work in the area impossible.
Remonde agreed with DPWH-Central Visayas and UKC Builders, the contractor, to initiate a "catch-up plan" to finish the road on schedule.
The CNCRP is a 9.45-kilometer, four-lane highway that will connect Mandaue City to the towns of Consolacion and Liloan. The road will run parallel to the existing north road.
The project consists of two packages: the P1.45 billion Package 1, which is the 1.39-kilometer stretch that will include the Cansaga bay bridge that will connect Mandaue to Consolacion, and the P561.8-million Package 2, which is 8.06-kilometer long and will include the Suba Bridge, the Tayud underpass and a pedestrian overpass.
The RROW acquisition will cost another P276.3 million.
Mayor Jonas Cortes, in an interview, said the project is a great help in the economy of Cebu as it will complement the City's north reclamation project. He said the coastal road will benefit northern towns as it will decongest traffic.
Also with the President in Monday's visit were Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Mayor Cortes, Representative Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu Province, 6th district), Representative Benhur Salimbangon (Cebu Province, 4th district) and Cebu City Acting Mayor Michael Rama. (OCP/Sun.Star Cebu)
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