BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Works on the P790.5-million “Bacolod Economic Highway”— to interconnect six Bacolod barangays — has started, according to Bacolod Representative Evelio Leonardia.
The congressman said the 21.758-kilometer road project will connect Barangay Sum-ag to the Bacolod-Silay Airport Access Road, passing through the villages of Cabug, Felisa, Mansilingan, Estefania, Mandalagan and Bata.
The road project will showcase the agro-industrial and tourism potentials of southern and eastern parts of Bacolod and stimulate economic activities in the area, Leonardia said, adding that it will be funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
"The road will encompass sugarcane fields and rice plantations, fruit and tree farms, cockfarms and old haciendas, and it is also near factories and resorts," he said.
DPWH-Bacolod district engineer Abraham Villareal, for his part, said this will also cut the travel time for those coming from the Araneta Highway, bypassing the bottleneck traffic along the existing Bacolod Circumferential Road.
It will also connect four national roads — Araneta, BCR, Bacolod City Boundary Road and Bacolod San Carlos Road — thus improving mobility and spreading urbanization access, Villareal said. It will also cross the P240-million Burgos-Lacson-Garanada-Alangilan highway that is now under construction, he added. The project will further serve as an alternate route to the congested Lacson highway and BCR in going to and from the Bacolod-Silay Airport and Bago City, La Carlota City, Pulupandan town and the rest of Southern Negros, he said.
Villareal added that the project is now on the detailed engineering design-phase. — (FREEMAN)