That is the repair works on the Porac-Angeles City Road, according to the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, articulating the collective lamentation and disgust of motorists and commuters inconvenienced by this the latest in the “never ending rehabilitation” of the road.
Concrete stretches of the road in Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug Paralaya have been jackhammered and scraped reportedly for reblocking, reducing it to a single lane.
Porac residents working in Angles City as well as regular commuters said they had to rise up earlier or be late owing to the heavy traffic in the area during rush hours.
Even Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, in his regular breakfast forum with the media last week, complained that the city’s traffic enforcers have to encroach to the Porac barangays “just to lend order” to the traffic mess caused by the reblocking.
“I really have to talk to Mayor Carling (de la Cruz) for him to assign his own traffic enforcers in their part of the road,” Pamintuan said.
Yearly agony
“Taunang pagpapahirap na po sa amin ang ginagawang pagbakbak at muling pagsisimento ng aming kalsada,” said a Manibaug resident who asked to be identified only as “Velasco.”
He said the road was first scraped and cemented during the term of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo with her son Mikey as representative of the 2nd Distroct of Pampanga.
“Tanda ko pa, pinuno ng tarpaulin ni Cong Mikey ang kahabaan ng kalsada na nagaanunsyo na proyekto niya ito,” Velasco said.
The road concreting took nearly a year to finish, Velasco said, and was already rutted and cracked “after only three months.”
The road has undergone annual rehabilitation since, the Department of Public Highways earning the condemnation of the people for “doing a lousy job”and being “insensitive” to their welfare.
Template
The PGKM has expressed fears that the Porac-Angeles City Road with its “perennial cracking, scraping and reblocking” could serve as template for all road constructions supervised by the DPWH.
“A case in point is the Circumferential Road where cracks and scaling have appeared even before construction is completed.” PGKM said.
Correction
A road worker onsite who requested for anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media said the current contractor, a firm called “Zamora” was just “correcting structural flaws” in the previous construction and rehabilitation of the road.
Asked what these were, he said “hindi po compacted ang base course at kulang sa bakal, kaya dagdag at malaking bakal tsaka semento sa base course ang ginagawa ngayon.”
Fast track
According to the worker, Mayor Condralito dela Cruz has made representations with the Department of Public Works and Highways to fast track the road reblocking.
“Tatlong buwan po ang target ng construction, pero nakiusap po si mayor na huwag nang paratingin pa duon at tapusin na ng mas maaga,” he said.
