Widening project closes major Leyte bridge

CARIGARA, Leyte, July 31 -- The Jugaban Bridge will be closed until September 21 this year to give way to widening activities. 

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Leyte Second District Engineering Office has advised all motorists, coming from both directions of Tacloban and Ormoc, to utilize alternate routes at the streets of Enage, Real, and Esperanza going to the national highway. 

Appropriate directional signs and traffic advisories have been installed to inform motorists about the closure of the bridge. 

The district office also coordinated with the local government unit, Philippine National Police, and village officials to provide assistance in managing the re-routed traffic. 

Jugaban Bridge in this town has been closed since July 27. Its widening project was supposed to start last June 6, but was delayed due to pending pipe relocation works by a local water district.

The project cost at PHP4.6 million and will turn the two-lane bridge into four. The bridge widening project is to complement the road widening also being undertaken by the DPWH all over the area. 

The two-lane Jugaban Bridge is in need of a good repair, said District Engineer Carlos Veloso. 

The DPWH has continued to lobby funding to widen all two-lane bridges in the region into four lanes. 

The official ordered the contractor for speedy completion with enough manpower to finish the project in accordance with the plans and specifications. 

Veloso asked the public to bear with the bridge’s temporary closure, saying the expansion project would be for the greater good that could last a long time. (Ahlette C. Reyes/PNA)