The Road to Perdition

One thing I’ve learned after driving an average of almost a hundred thousand kilometers each year for the last 15 years or so, is that the shortest distance between two points is always under construction. I don’t know about you, but every drive I take seems to be punctuated by unfinished road works, abandoned election promises or lofty government ideas that just ran out of cash or care. Then I get somewhere around the halfway point of my trip and it becomes a full stop.

Take the Nichols Bridge as an example—or Sales Bridge, as it is officially named. I’ve reared three children since they started the rehabilitation. I may send one off to college by the time they finish it. I mean, seriously—what in Andoks are they doing? Didn’t they just rehabilitate that a few years ago? 

The most baffling part is they just recently finished building a beautiful rotunda towards the entry of the bridge when you’re coming from the airport, only to block one of the major entry points with rocks. What’s up with that? Isn’t that like ordering a burger only to throw away the beef? 

In fact, it sometimes makes me think that a lot of these so called road works are done just to make local governments look busy. Take one of the stories that was emailed to me by a reader. His street (right up to his driveway) was dug up for ‘improvements’ and then just abandoned halfway through. Aside from the restricted access, the residents were forced to park their cars along nearby main roads, which of course led to conflict with the owners of the businesses along it—plus because their cars were exposed, they inevitably fell victim to various crimes including vandalism and theft. 

Another reader writes about road diggings on main roads on peak hours, while one spent two thousand words on unlit work areas at night and dangerous debris that was just left around which eventually damaged her car.

Ah, I can feel your blood pressure rising already. I’m willing to put a month’s pay that you have your own harrowing experience you wish to share. But save it. Customer concerns are usually heard between 9:00 am and 9:02 am only. And all complaints will be entertained after a 45-minute voice prompt asks you everything from your mother’s next door neighbors’ cousin’s maiden name to the preferred breakfast cereal of Buddhist Eskimos facing an Alaskan winter. 

But seriously, why does asking for basic information regarding the status of road projects feel like you’re asking for the launch codes for nuclear missiles?  What gives? It’s just a flyover, or a broken pipe for crying out loud. Not a threat to national security. Anyone would think they were digging up Area 51. 

We all know that the government needs to repair, maintain and improve our roads; that goes without saying, as does the need to point out that there will be some inconvenience as it happens. But don’t you think that there really should be some sort of a public forum before roads or bridges are ‘improved’ and work is undertaken?  

I’m not saying they should put it to a vote, just a realistic venue where residents or those affected can be informed of the proposal as well as the estimated completion date, and can interact accordingly. It can even be done online. Anything. So long as people have decent access to information. 

I guess the key here is transparency. If you happen to be an elected official with a grand plan of improving your district, but will obviously need to inconvenience your constituents temporarily during its construction phase, try letting them know the how, why and when, and allow them to interact with you throughout the construction; you may be surprised at how cooperative and understanding your voters will be. Please don’t confuse this with just putting a picture of yourself on a little billboard by the construction site—that just gives motorists a face to identify the last hour of toxic traffic with. 

Also, let people know what’s in it for them. Don’t patronize them with an artist’s unrealistic impression that is haphazardly splashed alongside your picture; give them a website address or something where they can get useful information. If it is to widen a road or to improve drainage, they may be willing to sacrifice a bit. So long as it is within reason. And lastly, and most importantly, finish the job off, instead of allowing the broken earth to age naturally, presumably to cure the soil underneath before you finally decide to lay concrete over it. 

I know you may say that you are already doing this, but it shouldn’t just apply to massive projects that already get media coverage, like an MRT or skyway or something; you may also argue that plans are available at the city hall or the barangay office etc, but it is obviously not accessible enough. And let’s be realistic. People are getting rabid precisely because they have wasted precious time and gas stuck in traffic; you cannot expect them to now throw good time after bad looking for these places and trying to extract information from the city engineers office, wherever that is. Look at what happened to me while attempting to do research for this article. My hair wasn’t always this grey.

And just in case I still need to point out the painfully obvious, kindly do the job properly to begin with. Twice a year, the foot of the Sales Bridge coming from the highway on to the service road is resealed before and after the rainy season because it usually looks like a scene from the Apollo moon landing. Yet despite the pattern, year after year, it ends up looking exactly the same with potholes the size of Volkswagens. 

Just think: one small step from the government is a giant leap for us motorists. We’re not asking for much; we just want to be able to go from A to B one day without having to negotiate our way through the whole alphabet, that’s all.