by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–“The San Juanico Bridge looks good from the outside,” but it urgently needs major repair and rehabilitation “after years of neglect,” declared President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr (PBBM) when he visited the Amandayehan Port in Basey, Samar Wednesday (June 11).
The Port is set as the shortest alternate route for heavy trucks barred from crossing the 52-year-old iconic bridge, which he lamented as having been neglected for years. Whose neglect? He was not saying except that he expressed disappointment on why better maintenance was never done for undetermined reasons. “The bridge should have undergone inspection every three years,” said the President.
During his ocular inspection of the Port in Basey town, PBBM announced to the public and the media that the he was also briefed on the actual condition of the San Juanico Bridge by experts from the Department of Public Works and Highways-Region 8 (DPWH-8).
The DPWH engineers “pointed out a troubling concern: the steel structure underneath the bridge is having corrosion and rust, showing an urgent need for repair,” said the President, who was accompanied by Speaker Martin Romualdez, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, and DPWH-8 Regional Director Edgar Tabacon, among other regional officials.
PBBM said that he was shown, with photos, by the DPWH-8 engineers the different parts of the bridge, which has structural defects even if it appears fine from the outside.
Sharing the photos to the media, PBBM said, “Ito yung ilalim, kalawang na lahat, Ito may corrosion, ito bumibigay na, ito buckling of the bottom. Bibigay na. The DPWH said this is very dangerous already. We did not expect this to be such in terrible condition.”
One critical condition of the bridge’s understructure is buckling, PBBM said, which causes lateral deformation or the bridge’s being out of its plane. An engineer, on the sideline, explained that buckling can “affect bridge components, such as girders, columns, and even the entire structure.
When asked of the government’s plan on the bridge, PBBM said “we already have a rehabilitation plan at hand.” But during the inspection to see where the rehab works would be done, “the engineers realized the danger of continued use; thus, they recommended the restriction against heavy vehicles crossing.”
In response to these findings, the Regional Development Council (RDC) convened a day earlier, then passed a resolution urging the Office of the President to allocate P1.17 billion for the restoration of the bridge capacity to its original 33 tons within the year. “This will address the economic issues caused by the traffic restriction,” the RDC explained.
Since May 15, the bridge has been limited to a 3-ton load, but resulted in logistical nightmare for hundreds of cargo trucks stranded on both sides of Leyte and Samar. The restriction disrupted transport routes and heightened demands for prompt action to restore the bridge’s full functionality, which is a critical economic artery between the two islands.
To alleviate the immediate transportation issues caused by reduced load capacity, PBBM visited the Port in Samar where he encouraged shipping companies to deploy larger roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) vessels along the Amandayehan-Tacloban route. “This strategic move aims to enhance the flow of goods and reduce the backlog of stranded trucks, providing temporary relief while more permanent solutions for the bridge’s rehabilitation are pursued,” he said.
PBBM, saying he was in Samar because of the worsening problem due to the bridge restriction, disclosed that the vessels of 30-truck capacity as transit vehicles for the bridge-restricted trucks shall soon be replaced or upgraded with the arrival of 40- and 50-truck capacity marine vessels.
“We shall build additional ramp nearby the existing one so that at least 500 trucks can be transported to and from Leyte and Samar in a day. We are also launching a night navigation system so that these vessels can cross the San Juanico Strait even at night. This is our way of trying to mitigate the problem,” said the President. —Miriam G. Desacada