Travel to Zambales to take 3 hours, DPWH tells motorists

MANILA, Philippines - Manila-based motorists who are headed north of Zambales would have to endure three hours of travel time for the next three weeks, or until the Department of Public Works and Highways completes the repairs of the bridge recently damaged by heavy flashfloods brought about by Typhoon Kiko.

At present, motorists traveling to the upper part of Zambales province have to take a longer route and have to pass by Pangasinan province in order to reach their destination. This means an additional three hours of travel time for them.

DPWH Undersecretary for Luzon Romeo Momo yesterday said that it would take them at least three weeks to install the steel bridge that would replace the damaged structure. The government would be spending P10 million on the project.

“The new bridge that we would be installing over the Bucao River is actually an existing bridge that is no longer being used. It has already been disassembled and now we are assembling the 65-meter Mabey-type bridge over the Bucao River,” said Momo.

“Apart from that, we would also be elevating the location of the bridge by about two meters, using filling materials, to make sure that even if the water from the river overflows, the bridge would remain intact and would not be washed away, unless of course there would be large debris present in the floodwaters,” he said.

The DPWH would also be erecting approaches, measuring 30 meters.  

Momo said that when the heavy rains came in Aug. 6, the river in Botolan municipality overflowed and destroyed one kilometer of the Bucao earthdike. A section of the Bucao River, that has been dry for several years, came back to life when the floodwaters returned to its previous course and passed under the bridge once again.

DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. earlier said that they opted to fix the Bucao bridge rather than focusing on the earthdike because it would take a longer time to repair the dike. They would need to wait for the floodwaters to subside and for the land to dry up.