Preventing Another Breakage of Coastal Road

Portions of the Coastal Plain Road crumbled under heavy flooding two weeks ago, and while a lot of it was blamed on deforestation, a lot was also blamed on the government. Some have accused the government of compromising quality for savings, but when we got a chance to speak with the Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Julius Espat on Friday, he said that the contract for that project was signed long before they got in. Espat also said that what we do with the environment contributes to the consequences we are enduring now. He also said that the ministry’s engineers are now looking at how they can prevent a recurrence of the breakage.

 

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing

“That project was designed and awarded during their time. We are only continuing with an existing contract. There’s no way we could have compromised safety with saving. Saving was not gotten by changing the scope of work. Saving was achieved when the project was completed and there was a contingency in place and that contingency was not used. So instead, we used the contingency for useful purposes and in no way have we changed the scope of work. What we have been experiencing is, I think, a part of our own making. Deforestation has become a major issue. We have to be careful about it. The drought is a factor of deforestation, and when the rain comes, it’s also one of the problems that happen to it. And we have to deal with it, and we have to find a way to make sure that we minimize whatever repercussions that come with it. The contractor and the ministry engineers have been sent out to analyze it. We cleared the road so that it’s passable. But we’re looking at how to better it for possible minimizing reoccurrence. Where the engineers, both internationally and locally, thought that the flooding would have happened, but they didn’t. Conceived that it would have happened at this specific spot. If you notice when you drive the coastal highway, you have sections that are concreted, and it’s concreted with a purpose. They know that when there’s a severe flood, it has to go over the road, and so there are designs in place to be able to accommodate that. But new ones occurred. When we went up to check, we went downstream, and the stream is all blocked up with bamboo, with old trees, with all the deforestation that happened, went into the creek, and water will find a way out. You have to understand that trees and all of these things help with, minimizing erosion. It directs the flow of water to a specific area. Once you take that out and then it’s, a free flow water. We’ll find a way, one way or the other. And the coastal, for example, everybody is aware. That it was designed and it was placed in an area that’s very low. And so everybody knew that with time, it will flood once in a while. But the difference is it floods for maybe an hour, maybe two, maximum half a day.”