BAGUIO CITY—The Cordillera office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-CAR) announced that at least 71 percent of primary, secondary and tertiary national roads in the CAR were paved by the end of 2015 following huge infrastructure investments by the government.
“By the end of this year, we are confident that we will be able to cement 91 percent of the roads in the region to ease mobility around the region for both the motoring and commuting public,” engineer Albert Gahid, DPWH-CAR assistant regional director, said.
Gahid added that the department expects a continuous increase in the length of national roads regionwide in the coming years because of the conversion of provincial roads to national roads proposed by lawmakers from the different provinces to avail of bigger allocations to improve their roads.
According to him, the Cordillera is lagging behind the Ilocos Region and the Cagayan Valley whose national roads are 97 percent and 92 percent paved. About 88.4 percent of the Philippines’ national roads are concreted.
The previous administration promised to cement all national roads by the end of June 2016, and said 80 percent of secondary national arterial roads shall be paved with the increased budget allocations to public works over a five-year period.
Gahid said they will be focus on secondary national arterial roads, only 86 percent of which were paved last year, and tertiary national arterial roads, of which only 54 percent was cemented.
Before the increase in the allocation for national roads in 2012, the length of national roads that were concreted was at a very low 41.7 percent. The percentage of paved national roads increased to over 46 percent by the end of 2012 and jumped to around 54 percent in 2013.
The public works director vowed continued funding support for the improvement of national roads under the rural infrastructure component of Malacañang’s 10-point agenda for growth and development.