EDITORIAL - No need for a third bridge to Mactan

Mayors Thadeo Ouano of Mandaue City and Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City are right that there is no need at the moment to construct another bridge to connect the island of Mactan with the Cebu mainland.

We believe the traffic congestion that at certain times of the day descends on the two existing bridges - the old Mandaue-Mactan Bridge and the newer Marcelo B. Fernan Bridge - does not speak of a situation that begs for the building of a third bridge.

We instead agree with the observation that the problem is more the result of failures in managing traffic that flows in and out of the two bridges. If traffic flow in and out of the two bridges is better managed, we might yet see improvements in the traffic situation there.

This is not to say, however, that there will never be any need for a third bridge there. Lapu-Lapu City is a growing city and if its growth proceeds at the same rate it is going, maybe a third bridge may indeed be required.

As of now it is necessary to study the situation more carefully. Certain hard questions will have to be asked, such as whether the growth rate of Lapu-Lapu far outpaces the lead time needed to secure the money to build the bridge and the actual time needed to build it.

We do not think the growth rate of Lapu-Lapu far outpaces the lead times required to build the bridge. And even if the growth rate may in fact be rapid, another thing that needs to be considered is how far that rate is from reaching saturation point.

Mactan island is not a huge island. The tremendous growth and expansion it had seen over the past three or four decades is not limitless. The capacity of the island to absorb further development should be lapping near the top by now.

Consider this: The island started booming in the 1960 when the Americans built a huge base there to serve as supply point for the US war effort in Vietnam. By 1972, the first bridge was built.

Yet, despite the rapid growth of Mactan from the Sixties, through the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, it was not until a few years ago that the second bridge was built. It means that the first bridge was able to absorb the growth needs of the island until only a few years ago.

That means that the second bridge ought to be able to help absorb, for decades to come, what should, by now, a less aggressive growth rate on the island, constricted not only by space requirements but other demands as well, like water and power.

Again, the congestion we sometimes see on the bridges is not because the two-million-plus people in Cebu suddenly decided it was fashionable to go in and out of Mactan at the same time. Rather, it is because of the breakdown of traffic management somewhere in the peripheries.