DPWH told: Coordinate with City gov’t on drainage system

BAGUIO CITY – The city council urged regional and district offices of the Department of Public works and Highways, city engineer’s office and city environment and parks management office to coordinate creation of comprehensive drainage masterplan as basis for future drainage projects in the city.

The city council told this to representatives of agencies and city departments after City Engineer Elpidio Garabiles admitted his office is still preparing the comprehensive drainage masterplan of the city.

Engineer Evelyn G. Cayat, city planning and development officer, said current construction of drainage projects in the city were done without coordination with concerned offices of the city which resulted to traffic congestion in the city.

Engineer Rene Zarate, assistant district engineer of the Baguio City District Engineering Office, said the agency has a masterplan of the city’s drainage system along national roads which was completed through the roads and bridges inventory assessment that was one of the major projects done in order to have reference to the completed drainage projects along national roads.

Zarate informed members of the city council that the agency is willing to lend to the CEO and CEPMO the details of their study to facilitate the crafting of the city’s drainage masterplan in the future, saying that their study contains the condition of the roads and bridges, type of surface, thickness of the pavement, available drainage systems among others.

The council also requested the DPWH-BCDEO, CEO and CEPMO to consider the contents of Resolution NO. 252, series of 2012 for the agencies to consider other waterways within the areas of jurisdiction of the proposed drainage projects as the areas to divert the flow of the water instead of concentrating the diversion of the water flow to the Bued and Balili rivers.

The council instructed the CEO to prepare a partial drainage masterplan of the city, particularly the central business district, before the new set of officials will take their oaths of office and assume their respective psotions so that the local legislative body will have a basis in the provision of other similar projects to upgrade the drainage of city roads in the future.

Engineer Alfredo Bannagao, Jr., DPWH-BCDEO construction division head, informed the city council 17 drainage projects are 70 percent complete while the four projects being handled by the DPWH-CAR will  be completed by end of July.

Bannagao said five drainage projects are already completed while the 11 projects handled by the district office will all be completed by the first week of July.

For the DPWH-CAR, engineer Eduardo Ramirez, assistant chief of the planning division, said t/he Abanao, Harrison and other drainage projects being implemented by the agency in the city will be completed by the end of June while the Kayang drainage project will be completed by the end of July or at the height of the rainy season.