Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Century-old tourist town road gets new facelift

By Pamela F. Dungala

SAGADA, Mountain Province – The rehabilitation and upgrading of the Dantay-Sagada road here is halfway done and targeted to be finished by the end of this year.

Under supervision by the Department of Public Works and Highways provincial office headed by officer in charge district engineer John T. Marquez and OIC assistant district engineer Charles C. Sokoken, the project is 55 percent complete.

The project was funded under the 2010 General Appropriations Act with contract amount of P48,019,911.05. bid out to BMK/E.T. Latawan Construction on Feb. 25, 2010.

The project commenced on Jan. 16 with works to include widening, curb, gutter and slope protection works.

The project aims to promote agro-tourism development by providing safe, better, faster and easier access road going to this tourist town and nearby.

The Dantay-Sagada Road was opened in the early 1900’s through the initiative of Anglican priest and engineer, Rev. John Staunton.

Through a resolution approved by the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the province, the road was renamed in his honor.

The road starts from the junction at Dantay, Alab, Bontoc town going up to Sagada (Km384+700 to Km398+260) covering a length of 13.560 kilometers.

Being a provincial road, it has been under the care of the provincial government but could not be fully maintained.

The maintenance of the dirt road has proved to be costly for local government units and other government entities concerned.

As a result, the provincial LGU has deemed it necessary to convert the road into a national road.

Through the initiative of then governor and now congressman Maximo B. Dalog, DPWH Secretary Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr. signed Department Order No. 20 in April 2009 “Declaring Dantay-Sagada Road Provincial Road (Rev. John Staunton Provincial Road) in Mountain Province into a National Road” pursuant to Executive Order No. 124 authorizing the DPWH to classify roads and highways into national, provincial, city, municipal and barangay roads.

Dalog’s move for the road’s conversion was supported by the provincial DPWH office headed by then District Engineer Leonardo C. Leyaley, local government units of Sagada and Besao and other government and non-government organizations.

Reclassification of the road from provincial to national road will transfer the responsibility of maintaining the road from the province to the DPWH which has enough funds and equipment to do so.

The DPWH has allotted P50 million to cover improvement of some portions of the road for a 1.3-km stretch.

At present, Marquez and his team are closely monitoring the on-going project activities.

On the other hand, DPWH Secretary Rogelio L. Singson also approved after his visit to the district last year an additional P32 million funding which will be sourced out from the MPDEO’s 2011 regular budget.

The program of work for this allocation is being finalized before submission for approval to DPWH Regional Director Edilberto P. Carabbacan.

Meanwhile, DPWH is still looking for other sources of funds for the whole Dantay-Sagada stretch to be concreted.

No comments:

Post a Comment