President Rodrigo Duterte formally opened on Thursday the widened Davao Bridge in Diversion Road that connects the districts of Talomo on the first district and Buhangin in the second district.
The project is expected to improve the travel time of motorists passing through CP Garcia Highway, popularly known as Diversion Road, in the midst of a steadily increasing number of vehicles in the city.
Motorists also prefer to pass through the Diversion Road to avoid the infrastructure constructions along the main roads of the city, which has been on the receiving end of an influx of projects following a build build build battlecry of the Duterte administration.
The bridge widening is a part of a larger widening project across the entire CP Garcia Highway.
The bridge located along the Ma-a portion of the Davao River is around 220 meters long, a portion of the Diversion Road which has a total of 18.33 kilometers.
To date, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), around 12.76 kilometers have already been widened from four lanes to six lanes.
The widening of the bridge aims to improve travel time between Barangay Talomo Proper to Barangay Buhangin from 60 minutes to 30 minutes starting this week.
The widening of the remaining 5.57 kilometers is ongoing, the DPWH said.
Dean Ortiz, spokesperson of the DPWH, told the TIMES that the project would benefit an average of around 31,600 motorists passing through that section of the road every day.
The project was constructed by the Roma Construction and Development Corporation/Bislig Venture Construction and Development, Inc. and Vicente Lao Construction.
Total project cost was contracted at around P317.8 million.
It took years for the entire project, which started as a two- to four-lane widening and eventual six-lane widening, due to several factors.
Among these were the difficulties of the contractors to install bored piles into the Davao River.
The project also involved the slight adjustment of the water pipe bridge that traversed the river parallel to the bridge.
The pipe bridge is operated and maintained by the Davao City Water District.
The Diversion Road is a major artery in the city, with vehicles passing from either entrances using the road to avoid the city’s main thoroughfares.
The road connects Talomo District in the south to Buhangin District in the north, and is the main road used to get motorists to and from the Francisco Bangoy International Airport.
