Road repairs may go beyond APEC dates

CEBU, Philippines - The city may not be able to finish all road rehabilitation projects in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, whose meetings would start August this year.

City Department of Engineering and Public Works Chief Jose Marie Poblete said the bidding process and securing approval from the City Council for the projects are causing the delay.

He said accomplishing all the required documents may take two to three months; and since the appropriation for road projects are in lump sum, the budget per project need to be forwarded to the council for approval.

He said road projects would usually take at least three months to finish for urban areas, and this is if there is no problem in the road right of way.

“By August we can start the project but we might not complete them considering the contracting and bidding (process), among others. But ang programming dali ra kay existing na ang roads,” Poblete said.

“We will endeavor to finish (the projects) by the end of the year,” he said adding that they would look for ways to finish them all as early as possible.

The city has only appropriated P26 million for road asphalting and retreading and P81 million for road concreting in urban barangays.

“The allocation will be used to upgrade the quality of our roads, like changing asphalt to concrete and the like. But what can we do with this (small budget)?” he wondered.

He said they would now just purchase the materials for road asphalting and retreading and have them processed at the city-owned batching plant in the mountain barangay of Budlaan.

Poblete said they will be delighted if there is a supplemental budget to augment the existing appropriations.  — Kristine B. Quintas/RHM (FREEMAN)