DPWH’s Villar: aiming to solve Manila traffic gridlock in two to three years

File photo. EDWIN BACASMAS

Saying he wanted to fast-track infrastructure development under the Duterte administration, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar announced that the construction of key projects in urban centers nationwide will be done 24/7.

“Infrastructure delayed is infrastructure denied. Mechanisms will soon be in place to ensure that projects are built on time,” he said in a statement.

In Metro Manila, works on four projects are currently done round-the-clock. These are the Mandaluyong City main drainage project; the road widening and drainage improvement on the eastbound side of Quezon Avenue and Mother Ignacia, both in Quezon City; and the drainage improvement on Edsa from the stretch of White Plains to Main Avenue, also in Quezon City.

“We have a traffic crisis we intend to solve in the next two to three years,” Villar said, citing an “infrastructure deficit [in the country] in the last four decades.”

“There is a clamor not only to address the deficiencies but also to propose an infrastructure program that [will] eventually ease traffic in our major urban centers,” he added.

According to him, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be using a special concrete that takes just 24 hours to dry for projects on major thoroughfares like Edsa.

Major urban centers in Visayas and Mindanao will also implement the same policy on high-impact projects in areas with high population density, Villar said.

“Our vision is to make our communities liveable and safe through quality projects that are accessible and on-schedule,” he added.

Earlier this month, Villar, who stressed that he was not being “too ambitious,” said he was aiming to solve the traffic gridlock in Metro Manila in the next two to three years. -Tina G. Santos