Recovering Baguio’s sidewalks / Streetlights

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The City Engineering Office has prioritized the repair and recovery of sidewalks especially along school zones to provide schoolchildren and pedestrians safe and convenient access and mobility along walkways and roads.

City engineer Edgar Victorio Olpindo said more than 10 sidewalk repair and recovery projects are being implemented in the city as part of the road safety program of the department.   

He said the various projects cover more than 100 kilometers of sidewalks scheduled for implementation this year and the next. 

The program has three prongs: sidewalk repair for existing walkways that are dilapidated; sidewalk recovery for those that are within the road rights-of-way but are encroached upon and sidewalk construction for areas that have no existing footways.

In some areas, the office undertook partial recovery by designating a walkway with paint and symbols that signify that that strip is off limits to vehicles.

Olpindo said these partially recovered sidewalks will later be improved either by elevating it or partitioning it through bollards.

“I think it is effective as vehicle owners now avoid occupying those spots for parking,” Olpindo said.

Road safety was one of the components of the department’s priority traffic and transport management program which include the traffic enforcement program with emphasis on the towing operation, traffic signal program (traffic signals and road signages), traffic engineering capacity building program and traffic education program.

Projects lined up under said programs were the construction of towing storage facility, upgrading of traffic signal controls and installation of new ones, replacement of old or non-standard signs, installation of speed limit signs, motorcycle parking area signs, informative sings for alternate routes and tourist sports and public building signs.

For capacity buildings, the department aims to procure traffic modeling software and conduct trainings on traffic direction and control at the city’s barangays and basic traffic rules training in public schools.  

The traffic and transport management program is under the department’s Traffic and Transportation Management Division headed by Engr. Januario Borillo.

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The city still needs a total of 5,166 street and park light units for the central business district including its interior roads and alleys to achieve a safe or comprehensive street lighting status in said areas.

This as the city faces the predicament of managing some 10,000 streetlights after the Benguet Electric Coop. Inc. returned the responsibility to the city government last Feb. 26.

City Engineer Edgar Victorio Olpindo in a briefing with the incoming city officials led by Mayor-elect Benjamin Magalong said the city will continue to appeal to BENECO for reconsideration of its move considering that the city has no ready manpower or budget for the said task.

Olpindo said the city is currently weighing its options for the Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology conversion project on whether to undertake it by outsourcing through the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) scheme or to undertake it by administration where the city will directly purchase the units by phase within five years at P40 million per year budget.

City Budget Officer Leticia Clemente said the city received an unsolicited proposal from a Taiwanese company for the conversion of all existing streetlights, park lights and government-owned building and facilities into Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology and for the maintenance of the same under the PPP scheme and the same had been submitted by the city to the PPP Center for evaluation.

The process however will take at least eight months, Clemente said.

In the meantime, the city will look for funds to continue its Light Emitting Diode (LED) pocket conversion and maintenance works.

Olpindo reported that a total of 1,019 LED units had been installed since 2014 under the city’s pocket implementation of the LED conversion project in selected priority areas.

The LED streetlights were installed along Session Road, Upper Magsaysay Road, Abanao St. and Harrison Road while the park lights were mounted at Rose Garden, Wright Park, Heritage Hill, BGH Rotunda, Japanese Tunnel at Botanical, Upper Rizal Park and at City hall Park.

On top of said units, the city has a total of 8,701 unmetered lighting fixtures installed in the streets and alleys in the various barangays which have yet to be converted to LED units.