ACTING chairman Thomas Orbos of the Metro Manila Development Authority on Saturday advised motorists to brace for heavy traffic along the southbound lane of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue due to the unfinished drainage works near Magallanes interchange.
Orbos said the agency had asked the Department of Public Works and Highways-National Capital Region office to have the construction works completed by Monday.
“As a temporary measure and to make it passable to motorists, we have put steel plates on the area. But this still causes the motorists to slow down which results to traffic buildup,” he said.
The drainage improvement project of the DPWH-NCR was granted permit by MMDA last year but was temporarily stopped due to the moratorium on all road repairs and diggings issued during the Christmas season.
According to Orbos, C&F Construction, the contractor of the project, resumed its works on Thursday morning without prior coordination with MMDA.
The agency is contemplating filing the appropriate charges against C&F Construction.
“If we were informed that they will resume construction, we would have prepared a traffic management plan on the area and at least augment the number of enforcers there,” he pointed out.
The construction along Edsa-Cabrera resulted in heavy traffic on the southbound direction up to Balintawak on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Orbos ordered the suspension of all DPWH road reblocking projects in Metro Manila until further notice.
He also required all DPWH contractors to submit to the agency their schedule of completion of projects.
Such completion schedule, if not followed, will incur penalties for all contractors, he said.
The road reblocking was supposed to be conducted by the DPWH last Friday along Mindanao Avenue, Tandang Sora Avenue, Quirino Highway, Congressional Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue, all in Quezon City.