Tullahan bridge reopened

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday moved for the postponement of the planned demolition and reconstruction of the Tullahan Bridge at the Malabon-Valenzuela boundary on MacArthur Highway after the dry run for the rerouted traffic exposed certain problems that needed to be immediately addressed.

The seriously damaged bridge has since been re-opened to motor traffic before noon yesterday.

If the mayor’s proposal to call off the reconstruction is not granted, the long-delayed reconstruction will push through as originally scheduled, Roberto Darilag, chief of the Valenzuela City Action Center on top of the detour plan told The STAR. "Half of the northbound lane (from Monumento to Valenzuela) of MacArthur Highway will be closed to traffic on Monday, with total closure imposed on Feb. 16," said Darilag. Despite previous appeals for postponement of the bridge’s reconstruction, the DPWH had said early on that this was not possible anymore.

The bridge’s construction is expected to be completed within five months.

Gatchalian said he asked MMDA chair Bayani Fernando to postpone the reconstruction of the bridge for at least two months. The MMDA is now studying the mayor’s proposal and a prompt reply is expected soon.

The postponement could provide ample time for other alternate routes, now under construction, to be completed and, by then, enable them to absorb the traffic experienced in the present detour routes, he said. The official added that the postponement could also allow the city hall to sufficiently adjust to other problems exposed by the dry-run yesterday.

Darilag said that aside from the problem encountered in Victoneta Subdivision, they found out that an alternate route in Malabon, particularly the M. H. Del Pilar bridge in Barangay Tenejeros, was under construction, too. Only light vehicles could actually pass with only one lane open to traffic, leaving the motorists with only the Maysan Road to NLEX route open.

As expected, traffic yesterday was snarled on several blocks, extending for some three to four kilometers on both the north and southbound lanes of Macarthur Highway after the 73-year-old bridge was closed to all vehicles at 6 a.m.

Stranded commuters found themselves in near panic after the buses they routinely took on their way to their workplaces were shunted off to the North Luzon expressway via Maysan Road.

The bridge, which DPWH authorities said is seriously damaged and ready to collapse at any time, was closed to make way for a dry run of devised rerouting plans to be implemented when the bridge is demolished on Friday, the original date the reconstruction was to have begun.

The dry run way suspended after some four hours, with the concrete barriers blocking the bridge removed at around 10:30 a.m. yesterday.

The STAR gathered that the test run had to be halted because homeowners at the Victoneta Subdivision had activities scheduled yesterday that required closing off R. Delfin street and the detour bridge to all motor traffic.