Sucat bridge repair put on hold while rerouting being prepared

The feared traffic congestion that will result from the closure for repair of the Sucat Interchange Bridge in Parañaque City has been postponed. The repair itself of the Sucat Interchange Bridge in  will be on hold indefinitely until a traffic management and rerouting plan can be presented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other local government units concerned, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) announced on Sunday.

MMDA Traffic Engineering Center head Noemie Recio said in an interview during the agency’s Sunday radio program on dzBB, that the closure of the bridge’s three eastbound lanes to pave the way for its retrofitting would not push through for now.

“We are not against the project. We just want the DPWH and the contractor to guarantee that there is a proper traffic management plan which includes the alternate routes for motorists and the vehicle volume count [for the] road,” Recio added.

The 45-day repair of the Sucat Interchange Bridge was supposed to start last Saturday although it was called off after the DPWH failed to coordinate with the MMDA.

Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez, in a recent statement, said that he received a letter from the DPWH only a week before the implementation of the project. On the other hand, the MMDA said it learned about the matter after the mayor issued a traffic advisory.

“The Sucat Interchange bridge retrofitting has been held in abeyance. This should give us more time to prepare contingency measures and alternative routes to mitigate the effect of the bridge repair on our constituents and motorists,” Olivarez added.

Recio noted that once the eastbound lanes of the bridge were closed, it would affect traffic on the West Service Road going to C6 and from Parañaque going to the east.

“We will be recommending to the DPWH… a zipper lane or [the setting up of] a temporary bridge on the said road to avoid heavy traffic in the area and in adjacent roads,” she said.

Recio also noted that the construction of a temporary bridge would take about four to six months to complete, taking into account the one built for Dario Bridge in Quezon City when its repair started last March.

The Parañaque City government earlier said it was already looking into revising the truck ban in the city to avoid traffic jams on major roads like Dr. A. Santos Avenue (Sucat Road), Ninoy Aquino Avenue and the East and West Service Roads of the South Luzon Expressway.

“Even without the interchange bridge repair, traffic is already too heavy on Dr. A. Santos Avenue and other major thoroughfares in the city, so we are leaning toward the implementation of a selective truck ban along major roads in the coming weeks,” Olivarez said.

He noted that the proposed modified truck ban was already covered by an existing ordinance that has yet to be fully implemented because of its possible adverse effects on businesses in the city.

Olivarez, however, said he would meet with truckers’ association in the coming days to discuss the ban, which currently prohibits trucks weighing more than 5 tons on the city’s roads from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day.

“The truck ban we will discuss will mainly cover heavy trailer trucks, container vans, transit mixers and haulers of sand and aggregates, among others, and it will be in effect on major roads,” he added.

With report by Maricar B. Brizuela