LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo K. Salda expressed doubt that the contractor of the multi-million Pines Park bridge will be able to complete the project until the end of the month as earlier committed.
He said that some of the steel girders that are major components of the bridge recently arrived in the municipality but these were not immediately installed because some could not fit in the entrance along Km 4 leading to the bridge area.
Salda added that it is for this reason that the bridge girders were brought to the Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) for temporary storage and these had been in the area for more than a week.
“We will just keep our fingers crossed and wait for further developments because we had been calling the attention of the contractor and the public works department over the past several days but we did not get any response from them,” mayor Salda stressed.
Earlier, the construction of the Pines Park bridge was programmed to be completed by October 29, 2023.
He suggested to the contactor and the public works department to remedy the situation if the fabricated steel girders do not fit in the entrance leading to the bridge area so that work will resume to meet the prescribed deadline of completion to ease the difficulties of people living in Pines Park and barangay Lubas in having to go around the Balili river just to be able to go home and go to their workplaces, schools and businesses.
Municipal officials had been frequently appealing to the public works department and the contractor to fast track the completion of the Pines Park bridge to ease the burden of the affected residents who had been patiently waiting for the realization of the project after the concerned agency decided to replace the previous concrete and wooden structures to steel.
Residents living across the Balili river in Pines Park and barangay Lubas have to use the temporary alternate route at sitio Tebteb passing through barangay Balili to be able to go to their destinations and back to their respective homes which is taxing on their part.
Mayor Salda stipulated that public works officials and the contractor heard the plight of the affected residents during the consultation previously scheduled for them to be appraised on the latest developments on the bridge project that is why there is a need for them to work double time to ensure that the bridge will be opened to pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the scheduled completion date.
One of the reasons for the delays in the completion of the Pines Park bridge project is the manufacturing of the steel girders frame of the bridge had earlier been put in place while awaiting the arrival of the other components of the bridge.
The Pines Park ridge is sandwiched by two private properties whose owners belong to influential political and business-oriented families who allegedly refused to allow portions of their properties to be traversed by the proposed bridge coming from the Halsema highway at its junction along Km. 4 despite the repeated appeal from concerned municipal officials and even the affected residents for them to be considerate on their plight for convenience in traveling to and from their residences.