Opening of Mandaue bike lane postponed to next year

CEBU, Philippines - Because of its numerous road projects, Mandaue City yesterday announced that it is postponing the implementation of its bike lane on S.B. Cabahug Street.

“We decide di madayon ang implemenation sa bike lane (because) we might be using SB Cabahug as detour (road for vehicles coming from the closed lanes),” said city planning and development coordinator Florentino Nimor in a press conference yesterday.

The dedicated bike lane was supposed to open to bike enthusiasts on December 15.

Nimor said the city got caught in the “conflicting schedules” of the three Department of Public Works and Highways projects, which involve closure of some lanes in affected roads. Hence, he said the city’s traffic engineers had decided to open the SB Cabahug Street to vehicles which will be affected by these projects.

He said for the moment, however, they are preparing for the road concreting in A. Soriano Street. Vehicles supposed to ply there will have to detour to S.B. Cabahug.

With this development, Nimor said they will also have to request the DPWH to delay the rehabilitation works on the first bridge as they have no access road to offer yet if this has to go on as planned.

“I-delay sa, like sa suggestion sa Lapu-Lapu City, after the (International Eucharistic Congress) na,” he said.

The decision also came after learning that the excavation project of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on Plaridel Street is expected to be finished by January, later than the target which is this month.

They will also have to ask the NGCP to delay the project for the meantime, he said.

He said the three projects will have to wait until they find a way to resolve the possible traffic congestion in the affected roads.

He, however, said contractor PB Obial promised to finish the project in three to four months, or shorter than the 300 days as stated in the contract. If this happens, the other pending projects can then be started.

“If that’s the case, mag-una na’ng ila (PB Obial), di magdugan sa bridge repairs. Wa mi time magbuhat og detour kung mag-start ang bridge. Right now, the two LGUs can’t agree on a date (as to when the bridge repairs can start),” he said.

For his part, Raymond Cataluna, project inspector of DPWH, said if they can start next week, they can finish it by March.

Nimor said the bike lane will be opened by January, especially that they have been getting “positive feedbacks” on the botched project.  (FREEMAN)