BAGUIO CITY – Thousands of residents living along the Baguio-Asin national road extending all the way to Tuba, Benguet are now up in arms against 3K Construction for digging up portions of the road without provisions of restoring the same the soonest.
Concerned motorists claimed breaking the two lanes of the road and removing the concrete pavement is not a good construction practice because their vehicles suffer the consequence of rugged portions of the road that result to the destruction of their ball joints.
The affected residents also criticized the construction firm because they only work for only eight hours which worsen the inconvenience of the motoring and commuting public.
It can be recalled that 3K Construction dug up the concrete pavement in an area having a length of more than 500 meters along the Baguio-Asin road which caused severe inconvenience among motorists considering that there was no sufficient manpower to implement the multi-million project.
Aside from the mechanical effects of the rugged portion of the road to the vehicles, residents have to take the burden of having to walk several hundred meters just for them to catch up with their offices and their classes.
Because of the bad condition of the road, motorists also complained of tremendous traffic congestions along the road which tends to delay the travel of residents to and from their houses to their points of destination.
The residents called on the Department of Public Works and Highways – Baguio City District Engineering Office (DPWH-BCDEO) to compel the contractor to complete the project the soonest and not allow the contractor to be awarded future projects of their bad experience with what he has done to the present state of the Baguio-Asin road.
According to them, the sudden removal of the concrete pavement of the road without appropriate contingencies is not a sound engineering practice which warrants strict monitoring by the concerned government agencies and for the imposition of penalties against the erring contractors who do not do their projects pursuant to project specifications and standards.
Engr. Alexander C. Castañeda, DPWH-BCDEO, berated the project contractor for creating serious traffic problems along the roadline instead of finding ways and means on how to ease the traffic problems along the road rather than contribute to the worsening traffic problem of the city.
“We do not tolerate such malpractice of the contractors that is why we ordered the contractor to at least remedy the situation by filling up the holes of the dug up concrete pavement which are not yet their work areas to allow the faster flow of vehicles,” the district engineer stressed.
He ordered the project engineer to strictly monitor the developments along the roadline in order to address the concerns raised by motorists and commuters, especially during rush hours and to make sure that the contractor deploy sufficient personnel to man the traffic and undertake the programmed works so that the project will be completed the soonest and put an end to the sufferings of the motorists.
