BAGUIO CITY – The City Engineer’s Office recently proposed the conversion of some sixteen city roads having a total length of 8.6 kilometers into national roads in order to lessen the burden on the part of the city government to maintain the different roadlines.
City Engineer Elpidio R. Garabiles said the city roads proposed for conversion to national roads connect to existing national roads in the different parts of the city.
The local roads being proposed for conversion to national roads with their corresponding lengths are Bakakeng Norte main road – 2,358 meters, Balsigan road – 819 meters, San Vicente road – 205 meters, Gen. MH del Pilar St – 69 meters, Gen. Lim Street – 345, Upper and Lower Mabini Street – 286 meters, Happy Homes (Old Lucban) – 403 meters, Hillside Road – 741 meters, Laurel St. – 271 meters, Ledesma St. – 370 meters, Padre Zamora St. – 873 meters, Assumption Road – 493 meters, Sepic Road – 386 meters, Sofia de Vera St. – 250. meters, Sumulong St., Holy Ghost Proper – 206.40 meters and Torres Bugallon St. – 519 meters.
Earlier, the city council instructed the City Engineer’s Office to finalize the list of city roads to be converted into national roads to facilitate the approval of the appropriate local legislative measure that will support the planned conversion of the roads into national status in order for the national government through the Department of Public works and Highways (DPWH) to maintain the roads.
Under existing laws, rules and regulations, the DPWH will be in charge of the maintenance works on all national rods thereby removing the burden of the allocation of additional funds for the maintenance of city roads if they remain classified as local roads.
Among the major requirements for the conversion of city to national roads include the appropriate plan of the road, a resolution from the city council requesting for the conversion of the city roads to national roads and the appropriate survey and road-right-of-way of the local roads to be converted.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan revealed the conversion of qualified city roads to national roads will help lessen the burden on the part of the city government in allocating local resources for the repair, rehabilitation and maintenance of the said roads considering that such task will already be given to the DPWH through the Baguio City District Engineering Office (BCDEO).
The local chief executive ordered the City Engineer’s Office to fastrack the completion of the pertinent documents required to support the immediate passage of the required resolution for the road conversions in time for the upcoming budget deliberations of the 2017 national budget.
It was learned that the DPWH-BCDEO was created when some 46 local roads were converted into national roads through the efforts of former Rep. Bernardo M. Vergara in the early 1990s which removed the burden from the city government in appropriating the required funds for the repair, rehabilitation and maintenance of the converted roads.
By Dexter A. See
