TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Lower Kalinga District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-LKDEO) reported that major infrastructure projects in its area of jurisdiction suffered an estimated P274.5 million damages during the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Ompong over two weeks ago.
DPWH-LKDEO district engineer Ireneo S. Gallato said that among the damages inflicted by the weather disturbance to major infrastructure projects in the province include aggravated eroded sloe protection walls, eroded and scoured concrete pavements, insufficient size of canals; damaged slope protection, hanging pavements; eroded road shoulders; collapsed revetment; collapsed riprap; aggravated road sirking and road slip; sinking and collapsed pavements and damaged slope protection and drainage system.
He added that there were also washed out flood control structures in the different localities within the jurisdiction of the district that warrants immediate restoration to improve the state of the province’s infrastructure.
Among the recommendations of the DPWH-LKDEO on the damaged infrastructure projects in the coverage of the district include restoration or rehabilitation of eroded protection and scoured pavements by construction of slope protection with widening and re-blocking; re-blocking of scoured pavement and slope protection; rehabilitation of canal linings; widening and construction of retaining wall in identified critical mountain sides; restoration and rehabilitation of eroded shoulder by construction of slope protection with concrete barrier; restoration and rehabilitation of collapsed flood control revetment by construction of gabion and mattress and put up of additional slope protection in identified critical areas of the project sites.
Further, Gallato also recommended that the damaged flood control structures should be replaced with more massive structures that could withstand the huge volume of water being brought by the onslaught of natural and man-made calamities.
DPWH-LKDEO covers Tabuk city and the towns of Rizal and Pinukpuk in terms of jurisdiction over the implementation and maintenance of major national infrastructures and projects being implemented in the said places.\
The agency’s report on the damages sustained by major infrastructure projects within its area of jurisdiction was submitted to the DPWH-CAR for consolidation with other reports from the 11 other district offices in the region before being submitted to the national government for the provision of the required funds to restore and rehabilitate the damaged roads, bridges and flood control projects.
Gallato appealed to local officials and residents of the local governments within his jurisdiction for understanding in the restoration and rehabilitation of the damages inflicted by the tropical cyclone because the government is doing its best to improve the state of infrastructure in the different parts of the province for convenient and stress-free travel inside and outside Kalinga.
By HENT
