Traffic to be rerouted as Butuan Bridge rehab starts

BUTUAN CITY — Butuan City’s Land Transportation and Traffic Management Office will reroute traffic as it starts the rehabilitation of the P2.2-billion Butuan Bridge. The rebuilding is due this month or May to strengthen the weakening foundation of the steel cable-stayed bridge, which was inaugurated in 2007. The bridge crosses the Agusan River about three kilometers from the existing Magsaysay Bridge and was supposed to enhance the flow of goods to and from Butuan. Alfredo Radaza, chief of the city’s traffic management office, said they were planning dry-runs of the rerouting scheme to avoid traffic jam. Once the ten-month rehabilitation work begins, the public will have no choice but to use the old Magsaysay Bridge, which has been in service since then President Magsaysay ordered it built in the 1950s. Government and private engineers have also sought the rehabilitation of the Magsaysay Bridge, saying it might soon collapse. They had hoped that the newly built Butuan Bridge, which has since been renamed the Diosdado Macapagal Bridge, would become a reliable alternate route. But a study made by local engineers and the Public Works department found that the foundation had been weakening due to the softening of the soil and rocks it is built upon, causing it to sink deeper and in danger of collapsing. The sinking of the bridge’s foundation has been visible at the foot of the bridge for months. Government officials who approved the construction of the bridge through a Japanese government loan have yet to explain why the problem had not been foreseen. — Ben Serrano/CGL/NPA, GMANews.TV