WHILE the country will mark its 123rd year of independence, Metro Manila residents and those living nearby will have to give up their “freedom” of traversing EDSA.
Post-June 12, EDSA will undergo a major facelift that threatens to upend the flow of 360,000 vehicles using the highway daily.
The rebuild project will cost P300 million for the northbound segment and P7 billion for the southbound sections.
During this period, a 24-hour odd-even scheme will be implemented at the highway starting June 16 to control traffic. Transport officials hope it will redound to 40 percent reduction in vehicles plying EDSA.
EDSA’s last major rework was in the 1980s. It has gone through several improvements from its original two-lane configuration in 1939 as “Highway 54.”
‘Big-ticket projects have a habit of overshooting deadlines. The EDSA rebuild is no exemption. Delays in rehab work could spill over to 2028 – an election year.’
To mitigate the monstrous traffic, provincial buses, garbage trucks and aviation fuel delivery trucks will be banned from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. More buses will be added to the Carousel system to encourage commuting while toll fees on sections of the Skyway Stage 3 and NLEX Connector will be waived.
The overflow of vehicles from a semi-closed EDSA will see motorists battling for every inch of space in alternate routes. Businesses engaged in logistics and delivery of goods will be impacted. Schools opening in June or July will create further havoc. Add rainwater, we should brace for the greatest carmageddon in modern history.
Pre-rehab project, the economy was already losing about P1 trillion annually due to wasted time, lost productivity, and increased fuel consumption caused by EDSA traffic.
A labor leader even asserts that the EDSA rehab is “not just a traffic issue but a labor concern” that will impact the daily commute of workers.
Come July, the President might see many empty seats when he delivers his fourth SONA because lawmakers got caught in the traffic logjam. Lawmakers and Cabinet members need not dare go to the SONA via choppers or “wang-wang” if they don’t want to send our road rage-prone motorists to another level of outrage.
We’re not saying EDSA should be preserved eternally in its state of disrepair. But a well-calibrated preparation should have been in place to effectively mitigate the looming disruptions.
Merging the MRT-3 and LRT lines and adopting a common station in areas where the two lines intersect is one preparation that should have been done to ease traffic below.
With the two train lines fully integrated, commuters can circumnavigate Metro Manila without having to touch asphalt.
The partial operation of MRT-7 from Quezon City to Bulacan can also help siphon off excess traffic on EDSA. Reinvigorating the Pasig Ferry system can induce car-dazed Filipinos to travel by water, like Rizal’s Noli characters.
Other recommendations are a massive information campaign; companies adopting flexible work arrangements; repair works done in main phases covering 5 major EDSA areas; and, limiting construction work to 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Big-ticket projects have a habit of overshooting deadlines. The EDSA rebuild is no exemption. Delays in rehab work could spill over to 2028 – an election year.
If there will be a big election issue that could hound the President and his chosen successor, it will be the unfinished EDSA – once the symbol of freedom for Filipinos and the downfall of a dictatorship.
