Works on Naga’s new bridge, road to start soon

NAGA CITY -- Works on the widening of Magsaysay Avenue and its bridge costing P82 million will start in the 2nd quarter of this year, an official of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) 3rd District Engineering Office (DEO) said recently.

Richard Emmanuel P. Ragragio, assistant district engineer of the DPWH 3rd DEO said that the coverage of the road widening project worth P20 million in Magsaysay Avenue here will start from the crossing of Peñafrancia Avenue up to the Rotonda in Barangay Concepcion Grande, while the expansion of Magsaysay Bridge has a budget allocation of P60 million.

These projects were bid out by the DPWH in 2019, however, their implementation did not push as the allocation of our office was slashed in 2019 by as much as P874 million. From a budget of P1.2 billion in 2018, we were only given an allocation of P326 million in 2019. As a result, we were able to implement limited number of infrastructure projects last year, he said.

Ragragio said that under the newly approved General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2020, their office has an allocation of P1 billion, which includes the budget of P82 million for the Magsaysay Avenue bridge expansion and road improvement projects.

The DPWH official said that the road widening and bridge expansion projects in Magsaysay Avenue will connect with the on-going road improvement works in Melchor T. Villanueva Avenue (formerly known as Liboton Street), the completion of which was delayed due to the presence of building structures, trees and electric poles within the 15-meters width covered by the road widening project.

Other projects of the 3rd DEO lined up for construction this year include flood control, expansion of bridges, road concreting and improvements, and others.