BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan urged the regional and district offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to conduct a comprehensive study on the applicable technical solutions that could be implemented along critical portions of the Marcos highway to prevent the occurrence of vehicular accidents that pose a serious threat to life and limb and the stalling of vehicles that often result to the prevalence of heavy traffic that last for several hours.
While most portions of Marcos highway are not within the jurisdiction of the local government, Domogan emphasized that local officials are also concerned over the serious negative effect of the heavy volume of traffic coming in and going out of the city once there are stalled vehicles in the critical portion of the road aside from the occurrence of vehicular accidents, thus, appropriate engineering interventions must be implemented by the concerned government agencies to address the said problem.
Further, he instructed officials of the Baguio City Police Office – Traffic Management Branch (BCPO-TMB) to closely coordinate with their counterparts in the Tuba Municipal Police Station for the immediate implementation of appropriate traffic mitigation programs during the occurrence of monstrous traffic congestion along the roadline so that motorists will be given the necessary directions on how to evade the huge volume of vehicles that clog the accident-prone areas of the highway.
“We will closely work with our counterparts in Tuba so that we will be able to provide the needed assistance when there will be future incidents that will result to monstrous traffic jams along the road due to vehicular accidents or stalled vehicles as a result of overloading among others,” Domogan stressed.
He asserted that it is high time for the DPWH regional and district offices to formulate the necessary programs of work on what will be the suitable engineering interventions that will be implemented along the critical portions of the road to prevent the occurrence of untoward incidents that will pose a serious threat to life and limb and the unnecessary stalling of huge trucks that cause the occurrence of traffic congestions thereby delaying the delivery of goods and the transport of tourists to the city and other parts of Benguet.
According to him, now that Kennon road is temporarily closed to light vehicular traffic, motorists are left with the option of using either Marcos highway or Naguilian road when coming up to the city during weekends and holidays to spend their well-deserved break that is why DPWH personnel and law enforcers should immediately implement the necessary measures to immediately remove stalled vehicles along critical portions of the road to prevent the occurrence of traffic congestions that will affect the movement of motorists coming in and going out of the city.
Most of the vehicular accidents and the occurrence of stalled vehicles happen along the 3.2-kilometer ascending portion of Marcos highway which was the subject of proposed re-grading in the past but the said proposal never saw light in the implementation of priority projects funded by the government along one of the major roads leading to the country’s undisputed Summer Capital.
By Dexter A. See
