DPWH to start viaduct project in Southern Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 3 -- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will soon start the construction of a viaduct of the PHP175-M San Ricardo-Liloan Circumferential Road project first phase.

DPWH Southern Leyte district engineering office chief Ma. Margarita Junia, in a mobile phone interview on Friday, said the project has been advertised last week in preparation for the bidding within the month.

Building the viaduct is the best option to preserve the natural rock formations in the southernmost tip of Leyte Island, said the DPWH.

“Instead of blasting the hard rock to clear an area to pave the way for road opening works, government engineers will build 450-meter viaduct snaking through the rock formation,” Junia told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The PHP175 million is just the first release of the estimated PHP540 million funding to build the structure. The government needs at least PHP1.2 million for each meter of the viaduct project.

The viaduct will rise within the boundary of Kinachawa and San Ramon villages in San Ricardo town.

A viaduct is a long elevated roadway usually consisting of a series of short spans supported on arches, piers, or columns. It is a long, high bridge that carries a road over a yawning gap of a natural structure, like a valley.

Also ongoing within the proposed alternative road is the PHP100 million concreting project in San Ricardo town, connecting a foreign-funded farm-to-market road in Liloan town.

The new circumferential road will reduce travel distance from Liloan port to another exit point to Mindanao in San Ricardo town from more than 40 kilometers to only 20 kilometers.

It will convert an existing provincial road into a primary highway, allowing motorists to reach San Ricardo from Liloan town without traversing the landslide-prone and accident-prone road sections in San Francisco and Pintuyan towns.

DPWH aims to build a safer alternative road to San Ricardo after noting that more buses and rolling cargoes use Benit port in San Ricardo town instead of nearby Liloan port, considering the former’s proximity to Surigao.

Within the existing Liloan-San Ricardo Road is the saddle road along the boundary of Son-ok and Manglit villages. The road leads to Benit port, one of the major exit points to Mindanao from Visayas. (SQM/PNA)