First in the country: Modern facility to make ‘killer highway’ safer

By Maurice Malanes

TUBA, Benguet – Alarmed by the number of accident-related deaths and injuries of motorists along steep portions here of a vital road network to Baguio City, officials here are seeking a modern technological approach to make the Marcos Highway safer for motorists.

Tuba councilor Roger Kitma introduced a new resolution on July 20 seeking funding for the setting up of modern facilities, one of which is a ramp to which drivers of trucks, buses and other vehicles can direct these if they lose their brakes.

Kitma invited Baguio’s Julius Mandapat, a US-licensed civil engineer and contractor, who, since the 1980s, helped build highways in California and other American states, to enlighten Tuba council members about how the modern facility works.

“If properly built, a truck or bus ramp can prevent at least 70 percent of deaths and injuries from runaway (wayward) vehicles,” said Mandapat, who was also a health and safety consultant of the US National Safety Council in 1997.

Some eight to ten meters wide and about 150 meters long, the ramp could be built at the strategic site of a steep and treacherous portion of the Marcos Highway along Badiwan and at another similar part in Taloy, both in Tuba, he said.

“The ramp is so designed that a runaway vehicle’s wheels would get stuck in the facility like being trapped in mud,” Mandapat said, “so motorists should be briefed on how to use the ramp in case they lose their brakes.”

He said a special kind of gravel and some other material would be used for the ramp.
Ramps are a must in US highways with nine degree angles or slopes, which are very much lower than some of Marcos Highway’s 12 to 15-degree portions, said Mandapat.

Besides the two ramps, Kitma proposed the construction of two inspection centers in two strategic sites, each of which shall be installed with a weigh bridge.

Kitma also learned the idea from Mandapat, who said that inspection centers, which are common in American highways, are part of international highway standards.

Each installed with a weigh bridge, the inspection centers would be managed by trained personnel to check on the “road worthiness” of overloaded trucks, buses, and other vehicles, said Mandapat.

Kitma said one inspection center could be built at the portion of the Marcos highway at the Baguio-Tuba border near a gasoline station on a junction where a road leads to Green Valley village and another to Mt. Sto. Tomas. This inspection center is intended for motorists going down to the lowlands and Manila.

The other center could be built somewhere in Taloy to ensure the safety of motorists negotiating the uphill portion of the highway to Baguio.

Mandapat said at least ten personnel in one shift should managed each of the round-the-clock inspection center.

He said one or two would oversee the weigh bridge, another to drive the tow truck (to tow vehicles for the weigh bridge), two mechanics to check on mechanical “roadworthiness” (brakes, etc.), a cashier to collect penalties for overloaded vehicles, and a police officer to advice motorists on safety precautions such as shifting to low gears.

After Mandapat explained how the inspection centers and ramps work, other members of the Tuba municipal council unanimously approved Kitma’s resolution. The officials have sought to forward the resolution to the House Representatives of Benguet and Baguio City for possible funding help.

Tuba officials see the proposed two ramps and two inspection centers, with a rough estimate cost of more or less P10 million, as a cheaper and immediately workable alternative to the proposal of the public works and highways department to reroute the steep portions of the Marcos highway.

If the ramps and inspection centers would be built, the Marcos highway would be the first in the country with such facilities.

Ever since it was built in the late 1970s, the road named after the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ father has seen various deaths and injuries related mostly to vehicles, which lost their brakes in treacherous, critical portions of what locals have dubbed “killing fields highway.”

Tuba police records showed 38 vehicular accidents along the highway from last January to July alone. The most serious happened last March when eight died and 42 were hurt after a bus bumped into an acacia tree along a portion of the highway in Pugo, La Union.