Feature: Have good roads, will enjoy comfortable travel in Southern Leyte
Southern Leyte (8 December) — Five years ago and backwards in time reckoning, the highway in the pacific towns, as well as in the Panaon area of the province, was so rough and potholed it was derided and compared to a “sungkaan”, a native playing wood carving with seven holes per side, a big one at each end, to pass around stones, or sea shells.
Worse, the joke then was that one cannot travel in these places at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, but 100 hours per kilometer, an exaggeration surely, yet symbolic of a very slow driving pace due to super bad roads.
Add the dust, the muscle pain of weary visiting travelers not regulars there, and you have a recipe for a never-again-if-possible-repeat-ride promise.
The existing cemented stretch from Sogod-Libagon-Liloan portion of the Daang Maharlika highway did not fare any better then, either, maybe because of long use; so many bridges are linked along this long highway, and in every approach to a bridge one really feels like being tossed up, bolted instantly from one’s seat, if the driver would not slowly apply the brakes or be extra careful.
But that was five years ago, even less. All these things now are things of the past.
The masterpiece 23rd yen loan arterial road package concreting project for Panaon, the Pacific, and up to Abuyog from Silago has greatly solved the “windy, wave-like” travel there, ensuring for good a smooth ride that you arrive at your destination before you knew it.
Last week, members of the Southern Leyte media, along with the DPWH, revisited these newly finished roads — new is a relative term, for even in 2006 most of these streets, while still being built then, were already functional — and they easily distinguished the big difference, in particular from the Saint Bernard to Silago section, and on to Abuyog, until the highway boundary.
Gone were the unkind jokes of 100 hours per kilometer travel as we drove along, and in its stead anyone can really select at what speed one can safely drive for a joy ride, for business or pleasure.
The group was not able to reach San Ricardo, via the Liloan-San Francisco-Pintuyan route in Panaon island, because of engine trouble in one of the three vehicles along the way, but considering that many were able to cover the inauguration of the Benit Ferry terminal in April this year by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the road here is definitely in top shape still.
As to the existing Daang Maharlika highway from Sogod to Liloan, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-Southern Leyte Engineering District (SLED) had completed the re-blocking of 3,047 meters of pavement for a great improvement of this road span.
The real hard bumpy sensation in every bridge approach — and there are thirteen bridges to cross in this part of the winding highway — has been gone.
In technical terms, this translates to 482 square meters approach slab on both sides of each bridge repaired or rehabilitated which, along with improvement of road concreting and drainage system, cost P 50 Million, an ongoing project that as of this writing was already 98% accomplished.
The Sogod section of this same road rehab project involving 0.455 kilometer of paved roads that were rehabilitated and improved was already finished, with an outlay of P15 Million.
According to Engr. Manolo Rojas, Construction Chief of DPWH-SLED, most of these mentioned projects were made possible through the intervention of Rep. Roger Mercado, using his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in addition to the DPWH’s regular annual appropriation.
In a briefing with local Journalists at DYSL, Sogod, Rojas said the laying of asphalt in many sections of the national highways was also coursed through Cong. Mercado’s congressional insertions.
He explained that the use of asphalt even in newly concreted roads was required since this substance will serve as the “wearing course”, meaning this will be the one to be subjected to wear and tear, and not the cemented road itself over time.
Thus, land travel along the major thoroughfares of the province has become easy, accessible, and comfortable nowadays.
So come on, biyahe na! Now na! (PIA-Southern Leyte)
