By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

Rage. This is the collective feeling of the stakeholders affected by the construction of a more or less 12 meters bridge at the Easter Road. Why? Since the construction of the new bridge started after they destroyed the old one many months ago, the construction had been taking too slow.

It did not only create inconvenience to the stakeholders. The stakeholders are now suffering from inutility of the concerned government agencies.

The most affected are the students at the Easter College and the nearby schools at the Guisad area. Even the pre-schoolers and elementary pupils now need to walk longer routes to reach their schools. And we pitty them during rainy days and typhoons. Motorists who would come from farther places must also take longer routes. And some need to pass by the Bado Dangwa Road at the Guisad Valley School where the road is narrow and adding to the already heavy traffic due to the bridge construction.

Business transactions also went down due to the bridge construction. The eateries frequented by drivers along the Guisad-Ferguson road have less customers now due to the bridge construction and the traffic that it (construction) created as a consequence. Observable too was the dip of customers frequenting the popular Easter Weaving also affected by the bridge construction.

Now the stakeholders need to suffer from another inconvenience due to the recent dredging of a canal at the Guisad-Ferguson road.

The earth removed from the canal were dumped on half of the road lane. It caused traffic to vehicles passing by at the area.

What made residents curse the concerned agency was the fact that the said road was newly cemented few months ago. But due to their poor planning, they were not able to packaged the canal with the road cementing. If they could have done the planning, then the people could have been disturbed once.

The on-going canal and bridge projects are manifestation of the inutility of the concerned agency or agencies.

Talking about projects and the ineffectivity of the concerned government agencies, you can also observe the various sub-standard projects implemented in the city. There were roads which were asphalted few months or just a year ago. Due to the sub-standard materials used, these asphalted roads were easily washed out by rain water. And you can see these roads with holes or you can actually see the cemented road with asphalt used as its outside layer. These roads can be seen infront of the Patriotic School, Justice Hall and at the Magsaysay area, among others.

While the sub-standard asphalted road at the Magsaysay was scraped and to be redone at the expense of the contractor, the concerned agency must also do it with the other contractors. Better, the concerned agency must check and ensure that the projects are done properly with standard materials. They too must ensure a better planning of these infrastructures so that it will not create inconvenience to the people. Or else it will again be a waste of the people’s money.

For this time however, I join the stakeholders in calling on the concerned agency to speed up the construction of the bridge at the Easter Road. The road is just more or less 12 meters in length but the construction is taking too long. To the concerned agency: do it fast! # nordis.net