Expect heavy traffic in Naga tomorrow

CEBU, Philippines — The traffic czar of Cebu province has advised the public who will be travelling down south tomorrow to plan ahead and, if possible, reschedule their trips to minimize possible congestion along N. Bacalso Avenue, particularly the portion in the City of Naga.

Naga was picked to host this year’s staging of the Sun Life 5150 Triathlon, a first time in Cebu, which will be happening tomorrow from 5 a.m. to 12 noon.

Because one lane will serve as the race course, heavy traffic is anticipated by Sunday morning with narrower vehicle passageway.

Jonathan Tumulak, focal person on traffic management for Cebu province, said that aside from their public advisory, traffic measures are laid out to ease vehicular flow by Sunday during the road closure.

He said residents and businesses in the City of Naga are prohibited from parking their vehicles along the race course, particularly the northbound lane (seaside) of N. Bacalso Avenue from Barangay Inayagan to Barangay Tina-an.

The same rule applies at the opposite lane (southbound or mountain side) that will be used as the two-way passage for traversing vehicles, he added.

Tumulak said the no-parking policy will be imposed from 12 midnight on Saturday until 12 noon of Sunday. He warned erring car owners that their vehicles will have to be towed to clear the route.

Moreover, to reduce the volume of moving cars along the national highway, he said there is an alternative route for light vehicles plying from and to Toledo City using the interior road in Inayagan exiting Barangay Pangdan.

By light vehicles, these are the standard size vehicles such as motorcycles, cars, van-for-hire, or pickup trucks.  Vehicles as big as mini dump trucks or bigger than that are disallowed to use the alternative road.

He said traffic enforcers from the towns of San Fernando and Minglanilla will also be deployed during the event to assist Naga’s traffic unit, given that the traffic problem is transcending.

He added that hundreds of barangay tanods are also tapped to serve as road marshals.

He said the assigned personnel will man the traffic and guide motorists for directions, while traffic devices like signage and traffic cones were already installed ahead of the Sunday event. — GAN (FREEMAN)