In a forum here yesterday, DPWH regional director Antonio Molano said his regional and 14 district offices are about to finish the 115 road and bridge projects in time for the 2016 deadline set by the Aquino government.
“Of these projects, some P9.5 billion are being implemented by the DPWH regional office, while the rest are being handled by the 14 districts in Central Luzon which have been authorized last October to handle projects costing P100 million or less,” Molano said.
Molano said the road and bridge projects were laid out in 2014 under former Pres. Aquino’s medium term plans meant for completion within 2016.
“Almost all of them have already been completed and we are now into widening highways and roads, although there are a few belated new bridges which cannot be completed within this year,” he noted.
He explained that the 2,444 kilometers included upgrading and widening of roads and retrofitting of some bridges in Central Luzon provinces. The roads included the MacArthur and Maharlika highways.
Molano said, however, that he expected at least 85 percent of the projects to be finished within this year, even as he estimated that about 73 percent of them have already been done. “Our rate of accomplishment is about 10 percent monthly so we expect only a bit of still unfinished projects in 2017,” he added.
He noted a few projects whose designs were finished only in this year’s third quarter so they are still up for bidding. This, he said, included the Pampanga Delta bridge which was turned over to his office for bidding at the estimated cost of P296 million.
