December 18, 2007...10:56 am
All roads break down in Manila
I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but I have this idea that Maynilad is deliberately wrecking our roads. Ever since I could remember, Maynilad never coordinate with DPWH on road construction, preferring instead to rip the road apart after the asphalt has dried. You can’t even say that this was a coincidence. Currently, they are working on Gen. T. de Leon Road, a couple of months after the city government has poured a fresh layer of asphalt to smooth the road out. They did the same before on McArthur Highway from Monumento to Potrero. And now, not two months after the Tullahan Bridge has been opened, they’re digging through the asphalt on the Valenzuela side of the road repaired along with the bridge. To think that DPWH took more than eight months to repair a bridge and stretches that lead to it, for a total span of about 100 meters.
Speaking of that bridge, I don’t know how the packaged that project, but I do believe that it should have been a priority project. That means that people should have been working on it day and night. Furthermore, I am not sure about the quality of the construction, given the events that surrounded it.
That span has existed since 1932, and serves as the main route between Valenzuela and the rest of Metro Manila. When they announced that the bridge will be closed, it was understood by the citizens that a steel footbridge will be erected on both sides so that pedestrians may cross. Lo and behold, the footbridge was made out of coco lumber. Naturally, when it started to rain and water and trash started to roar down on the coco lumber posts, it collapsed, taking pedestrians with it. Fortunately, the Tullahan River is no longer so deep (in fact, it barely has any water unless it rains hard) and no one was killed.
Rumor has it that the engineer in charge of the project was fired. But later on, much later on, people began to realize that the workers were just dumping soil on the road to raise the height of the pavement so it will meet with the height of the previously elevated stretches of McArthur Highway. There was no gravel or reinforced concrete when they poured the asphalt. It was also disturbing to hear an official of DPWH claim that water from the river was ruining the asphalt when there was not the smallest bit of macadam on it. After their work, there was now a layer of asphalt, but nothing underneath it. Not a month after the work was “completed”, parts of the road were already caving in.
I don’t know what to think now. Should I attribute malice or stupidity to this comedy of errors? The traffic in Manila is now one of the worst in the world, and the frequent street work is not helping at all.
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