Brace yourselves, San Pedrenses: heavy traffic is coming (again).
Rehabilitation works will soon start on the main bridge along the National Highway connecting Laguna province and the National Capital Region.
The partial closure of the San Pedro-Tunasan bridge is sure to create trouble again for residents of San Pedro City who pass through it to commute to Metro Manila every day.
And San Pedrenses haven’t yet forgotten of the awful chaos back in 2016, when another project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – the widening of the San Isidro River bridge – forced motorists to endure long detours and heavy traffic along alternate routes.
At the time, I was assigned to OpinYon’s Makati City office, and I was lucky enough that buses to Manila were able to park near a major grocery store in front of the United San Pedro Subdivision entrance during the entire time the bridge was closed.
This time, however, it’s the actual bridge that connects San Pedro and Muntinlupa City that’s going to be closed for major rehab works.
And this time, even though authorities have decided for a partial closure to alleviate the potential “carmaggedon”, the troubles for commuters and motorists aren’t essentially resolved.
For one, buses and heavy trucks have been diverted to our subdivision – and it’s not an easy situation given that our subdivision now experiences heavy traffic during rush hour. To me, it would probably mean 15 to 20 minutes of additional commuting time, especially as we’re talking about heavy vehicles trying to squeeze inside a street meant for cars.
Not to mention that commuters between Tunasan and Susana Heights will have to grapple with the loss of a major transportation mode to Metro Manila. (A similar situation has been experienced by San Pedrenses back in 2016, before bus companies managed to work out a solution to accommodate passengers cut off by the bridge closure.
Oh, before I forgot: San Pedrense authorities should also consider the fact that just a few weeks before, a backhoe snagged some electric wires, toppled a post, and left our subdivision for hours without electricity (and days without Internet connection).
If we are going to allow buses and trucks to pass through our village, then provisions should be made to ensure that electric wires should be protected to ensure that large trucks and other vehicles won’t get snagged again.
I guess we’ll all have to wait until the first week is over before the full impact of this project can be gauged by authorities and residents alike.
Now, it’s my conviction that it’s far better for us to be inconvenienced for just a few months than face long-term consequences should we defer rehabilitating our infrastructure. (As I had pointed out in my column some years back, politicians have long avoided large-scale infrastructure as it would prove unpopular to voters, often with disastrous results.)
But there is a lesson that should be learned in the 2016 San Pedro City bridge closure: and that is that authorities should take extreme precautions to ensure that whatever impact should be minimal.
(Editor’s note: the rehabilitation of the San Pedro-Tunasan Bridge has been postponed “until further notice” in order to secure the necessary permits from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, especially with regards to the “Rizal-Laguna” boundary landmark situated near the bridge.)
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