Valenzuela mayor appeals to DPWH to finish bridge

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian appealed yesterday to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to finish the construction of the Tullahan Bridge on the original date of completion.

“Mayor Gatchalian is calling on the DPWH to stick to the Sept. 30 deadline for the completion of the Tullahan Bridge construction for its delay also hinders development in the city,” Gatchalian’s public information officer Marither Menia told The STAR.

Menia said that apart from traffic problem caused by the bridge construction, several businesses and development programs of the city government, including arterial road projects, were also put on hold because it is directly affected.

“The mayor also called on them (DPWH) to conduct full-blast operation on the Tullahan project since months had gone and nothing has been accomplished,” Menia said.

She said Gatchalian directed the city traffic police and the local traffic enforcers to double their effort in manning the road while appealing to the drivers of public utility vehicles for cooperation.

Traffic at both approaches of the Tullahan Bridge on MacArthur Highway, linking Valenzuela and Malabon, worsen when the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority demolished a temporary wooden footbridge used by pedestrians crossing the Tullahan River.

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando said the bridge could endanger the lives of the pedestrians after it was damaged by recent flashflood.

The existing single steel footbridge, which could only accommodate a maximum of 50 persons at a time, is not enough to accommodate the pedestrians, especially during rush hour.

The DPWH stopped work on the main bridge to give priority to the construction of another steel footbridge for the use of the pedestrians, further delaying the Tullahan Bridge project.

Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on public works and highways, lambasted the DPWH for the ongoing fiasco over the P60.5-million Tullahan Bridge construction.

Revilla said he found some anomalies in the project and even called for the sacking of DPWH-National Capital Region director Josefino Rigor and the blacklisting of the R.C. Ramos Construction, Inc. for inefficiency.

The STAR had contacted R.C. Ramos Construction but nobody wants to comment on Revilla’s statement.

Project engineer Ed Santos also begged off from making a comment saying higher DPWH officials instructed him to refrain from talking to reporters.