What is the real score?
There should be a combination of a very complex problem and a gravely flawed implementation methodology hounding the government project that is seen to widen that short Carreta-Hipodromo-Mabolo stretch of M. J Cuenco Avenue. If my description of the situation is rather exaggerated, it is because I cannot understand why it has taken years (and I mean, really, years) for the government to finish the project.
Was it not that before the 2013 elections, it was flashed on the television screens and reported in our newspapers that there was going to be a widening of that stretch of the road? Oh, high government officials led by our honorable congressman stressed the need for that project in order to help ease traffic problem. And we all sang quick praises for them, specially our district representative, as if, doing infrastructure projects is written in our constitution as the main function of legislators!
This road widening effort has taken years to do and counting. We are about to end one congressional term and yet we are nowhere near finishing it. How long is this project, by the way? One end is near the Hipodromo entrance road and the other end is within the vicinity of the St. Joseph Parish church at Barangay Mabolo. That should cover a distance of about 250 meters, more or less although mine is being an uneducated calculation, I could be wrong.
What is supposed to be done? Widen the M. J. Cuenco Avenue to make it a four-lane highway, if the attendant media coverage when the project was launched were to be believed. So, too, if that should be the case, the work should add about two meters on each side of the road. In that configuration, the total project is about one thousand square meters.
Where are we now? Or to ask the question differently, how much has been done? After about three years of "construction", a great portion of the widening is not yet usable. I put the word construction under quotation because it is really hardly visible.If anyone doubts this statement, may I ask him to visit the work area during work hours after reading this column and let him tell me how many warm bodies are doing something. If he finds a good gang sweating it out on a specific task, then I must be either blind or unconscionably biased.
The obvious fact is that today, we still continue to drive on the original road and not on the supposed widened area. That means, there are but still two lanes and not four even if years had passed already. With the heavy volume of traffic getting out of the Ayala's Cebu Business Park and as well, coming from the 4-lane road in Subangdaku, the bottleneck is not a product of blind guesswork. It is real and the traffic is understandably unbearable.
To be more factual, there is a tree in Mabolo that still grows on the supposed concreted part of the widened road. I once saw a vehicle hit this tree and the driver cursed I did not know who, to express his frustrations. The point is even the simple task of removing a tree on the road might not have been thought of such that no one is taking care of that part of the project. Indeed, that should have been considered and if so, someone is negligent because had the tree been removed, the accident I witnessed would not have taken place.
Yes, on some portions along the project, there are sidewalks already made. But these are not completed because they reach some old structures that have not been demolished. So, even the pedestrians who have started walking on the sidewalks made, have to go back to the street to continue their sojourn. Again I saw one such pedestrian who got hit by a vehicle when in that process of moving from the sidewalk to the road.
If I am nitpicking here, it is because I do not know what delays the project. I hope someone can go back to the television screens and ask reporters to print news stories on what is the real score.
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