BAGUIO CITY – The City Engineering Office reported that one hundred sixty-seven infrastructure projects in the different parts of the city suffered over P485.3 million worth of damages due monsoon rains last August and Typhoon Ompong last September.
City Engineer Edgar Victorio Olpindo claimed the required programs of work and cost estimates for the repair of the partially and totally damaged public infrastructure projects in the city were submitted by their office to the concerned departments of the local government for the possible funding of programmed repair and restoration of the projects.
The City Engineering Office is in charge of implementing and monitoring the city’s horizontal infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and the compliance of the same to prescribed standards of roads in urban areas.
“We assure our residents and visitors we are trying our best to make sure our major city and barangay roads are free from obstructions, especially after the weather disturbances that affected the smooth flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic,” Olpindo stressed.
The city engineer reported one of the activities they did while the weather condition was good was the overlaying of asphalt on damaged roads.
He assured the public that he various divisions in his office remain steadfast in ensuring that the problems of city and barangay road surfaces will be given immediate attention to prevent the same from being the cause of untoward incidents.
Previously, the City Engineering Office had jurisdiction over horizontal and vertical infrastructure in the city but the office was eventually divided where the supervision of horizontal projects remained with the City Engineering Office while the supervision and monitoring of vertical projects went to the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO).
Olpindo said one of the major functions of their office is the declogging of the city’s drainage systems to ensure accumulated debris will be immediately removed avoid flooding that may be triggered by clogged drainage.
The city department head urged various establishments within the central business district area and the different barangays to refrain from directly connecting their sewer lines to the drainage systems constructed by the local government to avoid the unnecessary clogging of the systems as these serve as a link of water from canals to major river systems and these said systems drain the water flowing to the same.
He urged residents who have knowledge of illegal sewer line connections to the city’s main drainage systems to immediately report the matter to the concerned offices of the local government for proper action to be taken.
By Dexter A. See