Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar arrived in the province today to inspect ongoing high impact projects in Eastern Visayas, the Heightened Road and Tide Embankment (HRTE) and the Tacloban By-Pass Road project.
Sec. Villar’s visited the projects to ensure that completion is fast tracked. He is confident that these infrastructure projects will be completed as scheduled despite numerous challenges.
"We have many projects and we want to fast-track all of them especially projects like the tide embankment and the bypass road, these are projects which will immensely help the people of Tacloban and nearby provinces," Villar said.
Sec. Villar was accompanied by Usec. Roberto Bernardo, Regional Director Edgar B. Tabacon, Assistant Regional Director Eric A. Ayapana, DPWH Directors and other key officials of DPWH Region VIII.
During the short inspection briefing, RD Tabacon reported that the target completion of the Tacloban By-Pass Road is on August 6, 2019, while the HRTE project is expected to be finished by 2020.
The Php 924 million Tacloban By-Pass Road aims to decongest the traffic along Maharlika Highway, Tacloban City going to Palo, Leyte. The project will not only improve the accessibility of the road network but likewise increase development potential and reduce travel time from 1 ½ hours to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, the HRTE project aims to protect 30,800 houses/buildings of Yolanda-affected areas in Tacloban–Palo-Tanauan from future similar calamities/storm surges and to prevent casualties.
"These projects are part of the Build, Build, Build program of the administration and we promise to deliver these projects on time," Villar said
Sec. Mark Villar also inaugurated the Php 90 million widened Tigbao Bridge which was completed this year. This project will link Daniel Romualdez Airport to other designated tourism destinations in the region; links to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, the region’s tertiary hospital equipped with state of the art medical facilities, and likewise link to the National Maritime Polytechnic, the premier training center for sea farers of the country.
It will also link to the Tacloban City By-Pass Road which is also designed to decongest traffic along the Maharlika Highway and connect to the Babatngon International Seaport in the future. Travel time to the city proper is reduced from 45 minutes to 15-20 minutes.
"Tacloban City is one of our priorities in terms of boosting infrastructure development and building disaster resilient communities. We want to improve the road network to decongest the traffic and also make sure that we are ready for any calamities that we may encounter," Villar explained.