DPWH partially opens Clark bridge

ANGELES CITY — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) finally partially opened to motorists the P152-million Friendship Bridge here the other day after almost a year of delay.

Since last year, motorists have been risking their lives crossing a shaky temporary bridge across the Abacan River toward the Clark special economic zone.

Ramon Aquino, the DPWH’s Central Luzon director, told The STAR the bridge was opened to one-way traffic to and from Clark after his agency released P15 million of the P40 million needed to complete the concrete bridge.

"We are still driving steel sheet piles on the other side of the northern approach of the bridge so we can open both lanes to traffic hopefully by the end of the month," he said.

The bridge is a major route to the Clark ecozone whose development President Arroyo has included in her 10-point agenda.

"The delay in the construction of that important bridge has alienated a lot of people, yet no one in the government seemed to care," said motorist Jojo Due of Barangay Malabanias here.

Due said motorists like him risk their safety by crossing the temporary parallel bridge which he described as "always in danger of collapsing."

Aquino said the temporary bridge will be dismantled to allow space for more steel sheet piles for the new bridge.

With only P15 million available out of the P40 million needed for the Friendship Bridge’s completion, the earth-filled approaches to the bridge could not yet be laid with concrete.

The original bridge collapsed amid lahar flows in the Abacan River in 2002.

The construction of the Friendship Bridge started about two years ago but work on it was frequently halted due to alleged red tape in the release of P80 million from the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and another P40 million from the DPWH.

The city government claimed that it spent some P22 million just to start the project. The Clark Development Corp. contributed P10 million.

Meanwhile, Aquino said he will look into the strength of the so-called "sabo" dams which the DPWH built at the upper reaches of the Abacan River after the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo to prevent lahar flows from hitting Angeles City and nearby towns.

Former DPWH officials, who were involved in the construction of the dams made of piles of rocks wrapped in cyclone wires, have expressed fears that the structures could have weakened and could collapse any time, releasing tons of volcanic materials during heavy rains.