In the last issue, this column described a project that features what seems to be the fad in Eastern Visayas, the pattern of being delayed. Infrastructure agencies call it “negative slippage”.
Simply, it means that the project is behind schedule compared to the schedule stated in its contract. In the case of the tide embankment project in Tacloban City, the delay is 41 percent.
Thus, if you consider a proportionate increase in the actual construction period, the project will need 40 percent more time added to its contracted completion period. This assumes that henceforth everything will be on time.
Catch-Up Plan
Perhaps the contractor will be able to implement a Catch-upPlan. However, that is a big “if” because doing so would mean increasing its workforce by 40 percent or adding a shift that will increase the cost of labor due to overtime wages.
No contractor in this country would do thatbecause this move would lower his profits.
In this region, this happened in the Tacloban Airport Development Project which had a negative slippage of 37 percent. The contractor never recovered. It just presented a Catch-up Plan to prevent the termination of its contract.
Once the plan was approved, the contractor continued its slow project implementation and exceeded its proposed new schedule by a few months. It will reportedly finish Phase I of the project with a lower payment due to cuts called “liquidated damages”.
Contagious Like Covid
Curiously, the Airport project connects physically with the embankment project. It seems delays in project implementation are contagious like COVID.
As promised, today's focus is the impact of the 4.5 million pesos Tacloban Embankment Project. The first statement in the project briefstates that this project is planned to cut travel time from the city proper, presumably downtown, from 40 minutes to 10 minutes.
That bold statement is impressive. That is an 80 percent savings in transport costs.
However, strangely, this deviates from the main purpose why the tide embankment was planned in the first place.
This project is intended to secure the City of Tacloban from Yolanda-like flooding by storm surge, an event that may not happen again in a hundred years. Clearly, the project's initial primary purpose was relegated to a secondary purpose.
Many Implications
This change has many implications. First, the project planners made a change in purpose and therefore design. From an environmental and health objective (save lives) to an economic (savings in transport cost) objective.
This change is acceptable because by adding an amount for the road portion of the project, the project added a function thus making the expense more efficient.
As stated last week, given the change in the character of the project and physical connectionto the airport, this column suggested a tourism function by making the road with embankment also a place where travelers and tourists can relax, walk around, eat or dine, enjoy the view, and take instagrammable pictures and selfies.
Second, the delay can be converted into an opportunity. If the lost time can be used to improve the project's design and functions then the delay will be a blessing in disguise. Of course,delays also mean higher costs because of inflation, as reflected in the increase in the cost of labor and materials.
The implementing agency,the DPWH, will have to solve this problem and complete the project as re-designed, within budget, with minimal delay, if any.
It is still doable within the time frame and the budget.
As stated here in past issues – we are waiting and watching.
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