Skywalks across Osmeña Blvd gone

CEBU, Philippines — The two skywalks which had been home to many street dwellers along the Osmeña Boulevard in the past are now a thing of the past following their removal to pave the way for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit project.

BRT project manager Engr. Norvin Imbong explained before their removal that the two skywalks no longer served their purpose so they had to be taken out to give way to the new development.

Although there were some who lamented that removing them is like wasting people’s money through government funds, most skywalks in the city, including the two, have not been serving their real purpose as most pedestrians opt to cross the street than use the skywalks.

Aside from the hassle, many people also do not like to use the skywalks as street dwellers, if not suspected drug addicts and even thieves, frequent those places especially at night.

Through the years the skywalks, including the two removed structures, had been unsanitary even as the city government tried to clean and beautify them.

Now, the two skywalks along Osmeña Boulevard are now a thing of the past.

The first to be removed was the one between Robinson’s Fuente and the Department of Health-7 which took a week to tear down. A week later, the one located between the Abellana National School and the Cebu Normal University followed.

With this latest development, the traffic flow along Osmeña Boulevard now eases up.

As promised by the contractor of the Cebu BRT project, the ANS-CNU skywalk was already removed and cleared within the promised timeline, February 26.

The City’s Traffic Management Board actually approved 15 days for its removal, but Mayor Rama ordered to fast track it so as not to cause too much trouble to the riding public like what happened during the first few days of the removal of the other skywalk along Osmeña Boulevard.

Last Sunday, the second skywalk’s main span was already removed, but the City’s Road Management Authority/Cebu City Transportation Office (RMA/CCTO) still wanted to make sure that everything was already cleared before reopening the roads again.

Before the morning rush yesterday, the said area had been reopened.

“Open na atong traffic both sides sa Osmeña Boulevard/CNU from Fuente Osmeña to downtown Colon and from downtown Colon to uptown Fuente Osmeña,” RMA/CCTO’s assistant head Kent Jongoy said yesterday.  (CEBU NEWS)