LOCAL preservation activists here are raising a howl over a government plan to demolish the iconic 77-year-old Ysalina bridge in this city.
Raul Ilogon, leader of Kagay-an Heritage Advocates said they do not want the Department of Public Works and Highways and the city government to demolish the bridge for its historical value to Cagayan de Oro City.
Ilogan said they want the bridge spared from any development plans for the city and instead preserved for future generations to appreciate.
“We are not anti-development but there is so much history on that bridge,” Ilogon said.
Engineer Sabeniano Caliao, chief of the DPWH-10 Planning and Design Division, said Ysalina Bridge would have to be demolished because of “safety reasons.”
Caliao said DPWH technicians who have examined closely the steel girders of the bridge to support its deck, found it corroded despite the retrofit or rebar done on its structure.
He said the steel corrosion extended to the steel support piles and caps that support the structure making it unsafe for the public and vehicles.
“The seawater that crept up the river from Macajalar Bay during high tide increased the steel corrosion on the bridge,” Caliao said.
Ysalina Bridge, named after Governor Paciencio Ysalina, a former governor of Misamis Oriental, is the first bridge that connected the eastern and western portions of Cagayan de Oro.
The first bridge that crossed the Cagayan River was built between 1880 and 1890 and was made of bamboo. The bridge was ordered constructed by Major Juan Zanon, a military governor of Misamis Oriental.
The Cagayan de Oro Historical Commission said the bridge that was demolished later was replaced with a bridge made of steel in 1931. The bridge was destroyed during World War II.
The Commission said the present bridge was constructed in 1946 and has undergone several retrofitting to repair its girders and trusses that were found corroded by rust.
Caliao said the DPWH planned to construct two bridges for vehicles to replace the Ysalina Bridge. The two bridges would have a total of four lanes to accommodate vehicular traffic.
He said another bridge for bicycles would be constructed on the side of the bridge and another bridge with guardrails on the opposite side.
“Bicycles and human traffic would have separate spans. These would also be separate to the spans of the vehicular traffic,” Caliao said.
Apart from the bridge that would replace the old Ysalina Bridge, the DPWH plans to construct three additional bridges to accommodate future vehicular traffic.
Ilogon said they are asking authorities to spare the old Ysalina Bridge and instead construct a new bridge anywhere along the Cagayan River.
“Let the residents enjoy its history by sparing Ysalina Bridge and opening it to foot traffic,” Ilogon said.
He said demolishing the bridge would violate Republic Act No. 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 which states immovable cultural properties like the Ysalina Bridge are considered cultural property.
Ilogon said the old bridge is entitled to protection and preservation under the law.
Cagayan de Oro City Administrator Lawyer Roy Hilario Raagas said Mayor Rolando Uy wants to meet Ilogon and the Kagay-an Heritage Advocates members before deciding on the fate of the old Ysalina Bridge.
Raagas said Uy is also waiting for the results of the new tests the DPWH conducted on the old bridge two weeks ago.
