Kennon opened 4 days a week

BAGUIO CITY -- The temporary reopening of the Kennon Road has been ordered amid clamor, the Dept. of Public Works and Highways said Monday.

“Finally the clamor to open Kennon Road was heard albeit temporarily,” the department said in a statement.

According to the Task Force Kennon Road, the road will be reopened to two-way traffic on weekends from 6 p.m. on Fridays to 6 a.m. on Mondays until the Holy Week.

However, the task force will be forced to close the road anew in the occurrence of any untoward incident or accident.

It was learned that the task force came up with the decision to temporarily open the road during an assessment meeting last March 19.

In their previous meetings, it was agreed upon that in order to reduce the volume of vehicles plying Marcos Highway, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) Director Tiburcio Canlas proposed that motorists from nearby provinces and the lowlands going up to Baguio may take Kennon Road but has to take Marcos Highway, Naguilian Road or the Asin-Nangalisan-San Pascual- Tubao Road going down.

Residents plying Kennon Road, on the other hand, are allowed to use the road if they have submitted their plate numbers to be included in the list of exemption endorsed by their respective Punong Barangay to Mayor Ignacio Rivera of the Municipality of Tuba.

It can be recalled that Kennon Road was temporarily opened for motorists going up to Baguio in February and March for the PMA Alumni Homecoming and Panagbenga Festival.

The reopening of the road on those occasions, according to Canlas, prompted the road’s task force to recommend the temporary reopening of Kennon Road during the weekends. The scheme is also seen to give enough time for the department to complete the ongoing projects during weekdays.

Kennon Road was closed to traffic since June 2018 due to continuous rock fall and slides caused by typhoons and continuous rains.