Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark A. Villar inspected the on-going construction of Urdaneta Western By-Pass Road which will traverse the urban center of Urdaneta City and envisaged to propel the economic development of Pangasinan in particular and ease the traffic bottleneck along national roads traversing the city in general.
During the briefing of DPWH Regional Director Ronnel M. Tan to Secretary Villar, he presented the accomplishment of the project since 2012, in which DPWH Regional Office 1 paid the acquisition of Road Right-of-Way. The completion of Phase 1 on July 31, 2016, which is the road concreting of .03645 kilometers; 4 lanes Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) carriageway and embankment of 5.19 kilometers. Director Tan also mentioned the 50% accomplishment of Phase 2 of the on-going construction of 3 bridges- namely; Macalong Bridge with a Length (L) of 90.9 lineal meter (lm), PCCP bridge approaches of 0.7591 kilometers (kms), 4 lanes Mitura Bridge 1 (L=70.90 lm), PCCP bridge approaches of 0.4891 kms (4 lanes) Mitura Bridge 2 (L=36.30 lm); PCCP Bridge approaches of 0.1267 kms (4 lanes), and the 28% accomplishment of Phase 3 of the on-going concreting of 4.7646 km PCCP, 4 lanes with shoulder at both sides and construction of two (2) and eight (8) units triple barrel and single barrel of Reinforced Concrete Box Culvert .
A construction of a flyover across Urdaneta-Manaoag Road at Brgy. Camantiles, Urdaneta City was also proposed to be funded for CY 2019.
The Urdaneta Western By-Pass Road passes through the eight (8)barangays ;namely Nancayasan, Sto. Domingo, Sta. Lucia, Nancamaliran East, Mabanogbog, San Vicente, Camantiles and Anonas.
Urdaneta City is strategically located at the central part of eastern Pangasinan. It is bisected across the east and west sides by the Manila North Road. Urdaneta City is one of the major trade and business centers in the province of Pangasinan and most of its major commercial and business establishments and government institutions are situated in the heart of the city. There are four (4) inter-regional road system that will be interconnected by the Urdaneta Western By-Pass Road namely; Manila North Road (MNR), Urdaneta-Dagupan Road, Urdaneta-Manaoag Road and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).
The completion of the Urdaneta Western By-Pass Road will allow faster and safer movement of people, goods and products between Region I and Region III and will support livelihood and tourism in Urdaneta. Urdaneta also serves as a gateway because of its strategic location to the North Luzon Tourist Belt. Tourist visiting Baguio City (Summer Capital), Manaoag (Site of the Miraculous Our Lady of Manaoag), Lingayen (Provincial Capitol of Pangasinan) and Alaminos (Site of the Hundred Islands) stop by after a long distance travel.