Epic Fail

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

OPOL Mayor Maximo Seno yesterday blamed the vehicular traffic crisis affecting parts of Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro on the failure of the public works department and its contractor UKC Builders to plan and prepare for the worst before they started work on a bridge construction project in his town.

As of yesterday afternoon, the damaged section of the bridge project was opened for public use except for really heavy trucks. The capitol said the traffic flow on both sides of the bridge project have become continuous.

The collapse of a section of one side of the bridge project in Igpit, Opol caused monstrous traffic jams since Tuesday morning as well as disrupted the supply of potable water to hundreds of families after construction workers accidentally damaged a major water pipe of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) while attempting to fix the problem.

Mayor Seno said the traffic and water crises could have been prevented had the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and UKC prepared a detour in anticipation of the worst scenario such as what happened on Tuesday morning.

“Naghimo unta sila og alternative route sa wala pa sila magsugod sa ilang construction anang maong tulay,” Seno said.

Land Transportation Office (LTO) regional director Oscar  Salcedo said he did not want to point fingers because no one wanted the section of the bridge project to cave in, but he said there should have been a detour.

The traffic situation was so terrible that by Tuesday night, motorists queued up from Bulua, this city, to Molugan in El Salvador city.

Many commuters were forced to walk than wait for vehicles to move.

A mother from Bulua said her child had to walk from her school in Opol town to Iponan proper. “Ingon pa niya, mas dali makaabot kung magbaklay kaysa magsakay tungod sa ka grabe sa traffic.”

An employee at Asia Brewery in El Salvador said he left his office at 5 pm on Tuesday, and reached his home in Igpit, Opol at 2:30 am yesterday.

Nicole Managbanag, capitol spokesperson, said Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano has been coordinating with UKC Builders and has urged the firm to quickly solve the problem and speed up the construction work.

Lawyer Jose Edgardo Uy, chairman of Cagayan de Oro’s Task Force Hapsay Dalan, said vehicles continued to queue up from the Youngsville area in Igpit to Molugan, El Salvador as of 11 am yesterday.

At the diversion road, the traffic jam nearly reached the terminal in Bulua, he said.

Uy said the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) agreed to field some 28 of its traffic aides to help out.

Some 100 personnel from the LTO, police, Opol town hall and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council have pooled their resources to handle the crisis.

Uy said the problem was aggravated by counterflowing vehicles and lane-grabbing drivers, and he advised truck operators to defer their trips to avoid causing more congestion, and prevent overloading on the other side of the bridge project.

Vinah Mahinay, DPWH spokesperson for northern Mindanao, said the portion of the Igpit bridge project collapsed at around 10:30 am on Tuesday as a result of the rains brought by a low pressure area. He said the problem was aggravated because of a 12-inch diameter water pipe of the COWD leaked, weakening the soil.

“Ang information gikan sa among project engineer nga kadtong tubo sa tubig giliko pagta-od ug nag-leak na daw dayon ug nakig-coordinate sila sa Water District,” Mahinay said.

But Ladelle Sagrado, COWD spokesperson, said the water pipe was damaged as a result of the construction work.

“No one reported to us that it was leaking (before the collapse of the section of the bridge),” Sagrado said.

COWD chairman Eduardo Montalvan, COWD chairman, said it was UKC that caused the water pipe to leak after the collapse of the section of the bridge project.

Engr. Edgardo Tuvilla, a COWD maintenance department head, said the repair of the leaking pipe cannot be done before UKC fixes the damage to its bridge project.

Tuvilla said people in some areas in Opol town were experiencing low water pressure while those in elevated places have no water supply as a result of the damage to the bridge project.

Uy said DPWH and UKC, during an emergency meeting on Tuesday, promised to finish the repairs by morning yesterday and make the section of the bridge passable.

But he said the damaged section remained impassable as of yesterday morning, leaving only one lane for passage of all vehicles coming in and going out of Cagayan de Oro. Later in the afternoon, the DPWH said the damaged part of the bridge project was already passable but not for trucks weighing 20 tons or heavier.