CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Traffic Ope-rations Management Executive Officer Rafael Christopher Yap said he will start to evaluate the request to declare “Socorro Road” as “one way” to prevent accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians.
The road is the narrow two-way street starting from the corner of Gorordo Avenue going to Perpetual Succour Hospital in Barangay Kamputhaw
Lydia C. Tumulak, a resident in the area, had sent Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella a letter requesting for help to have the road declared as open to one traffic flow only.
She said that since the road is too strait, it is congested for a two-way traffic and pose a great risk for an accident happening to children, senior citizens and persons with disability using that road.
She said that as far as she can recall, the street is not a public road because it was originally intended only for residents in the area. The road, however, was later used by hospital personnel and patients, by taxis and even by private vehicles.
“Ako na bitaw nga giingnan ang mga madre nga nagdumala sa ospital nga mangita sila og karsada nga ilang magamit (I already told the nuns managing the hospital to look for a road of their own),” Tumulak said.
While she was not against the road being used by the public, she just want it open only to one-way traffic to make it safer for them to use.
The road’s entrance from Gorordo Avenue is even made narrower by carenderias (eateries) and some barbecue stalls, adding to traffic congestion and prompting pedestrians to walk on the road, hampering traffic flow.
If Tumulak’s request gets granted, a narrow road inside Gonzalez Compound from Escario Street also needs to be cleared of obstacles and made one way to serve either as road towards or from the hospital.
Meanwhile, City Planning and Development Officer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez said she had coordinated already with City Fire Marshall Rogelio Bongabong for the preparation of documents needed to widen narrow access roads situated in interior portions of several barangays in the city.
Enriquez said she would work to have the amount required to widen the said interior roads included in next year’s annual budget. (FREEMAN)