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DPWH fixes downpour-hit sections of ongoing road network in Zamboanga Sibugay
DPWH fixes downpour-hit sections of ongoing road network in Zamboanga Sibugay
Various restoration works on several unpaved sections of the Lutiman-Guicam-Olutanga Road in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, which were hit hard by heavy rainfall, have been completed, the Department of Public Works and Highways said.
Repair and restoration activities were conducted at the five slippery and muddy sections of the 29.10-kilometer Lutiman-Guicam-Olutanga Road, which is under construction.
According to Project Director Sharif Madsmo Hasim, the full blown repair and restoration activities were carried out from September 3 to 8.
“However, the contractor under the close supervision of the assigned DPWH field engineers and consultants, made both lanes of the existing gravel road passable in September 6 to all vehicles considering that this route is the only road leading to Guicam Port, where vehicles including trucks loaded with products and other goods traversed in going to and from the neighboring island of Olutanga,” Hasim said.
He also added that concreting works of the clay and slippery sections will only work best during the dry season so for the meantime, the road sections will be maintained passable during the rainy day.
The Lutiman-Guicam-Olutanga Road Project that started in March 2019 is among the core road projects in Zamboanga Peninsula of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-assisted Improving Growth Corridors for Mindanao Road Sector Project (IGCMRSP).
“Although the project site is hampered by adverse weather conditions, the accomplished full road width already paved with concrete cement is now at 6.24 kilometers out of the total 12 kilometers gravel road at the mainland side of the town of Alicia,” Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar said.
The overall project component accomplishment is now at 31 percent. It is expected to be completed by 2021.
Villar said the improvement of the present four- to five-meter wide provincial road made up of gravel and hardly passable during rainy season will improve mobility, connecting accessibility and safety, and reduced poverty in the project area of Alicia, Mabuhay, Talusan and Olutanga of Zamboanga Sibugay Province.
It will also lead to a ferry operation at the Guicam Channel of about 440-meter width to connect Guicam to Mabuhay in Olutanga Island.
Meanwhile, two other ADB-assisted projects namely the 23.73-kilometer Alicia-Malangas Road in Zamboanga Sibugay and Tampilisan-Sandayong Road in Zamboanga del Norte have posted an accomplishment of 31 and 27 percent, respectively.