ORANI, Bataan — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has targeted the completion by 2020 of the widening of the portion of the Roman Expressway in Bataan’s first district.
District Engineer Erlindo Flores said Monday that to be widened from four lanes to six lanes with road shoulders are 18.5 km. of the highway covering the towns of Hermosa, Orani, Samal, and Abucay, all in the first district.
Flores said while there were already portions finished, a budget of PHP300 million to PHP400 million is still needed to complete the project.
Roman Expressway has a total length of 56.5 km., 38 km. under the second district traversing through Balanga City to the towns of Pilar, Orion, Limay, and Mariveles.
The second engineering district has not begun the road-widening project.
Regularly passing through the expressway are all types of vehicles, including oil and liquefied petroleum gas tankers and other cargo trucks, carrying materials from fuel depot and factories at the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles.
A study showed that widening the whole Roman Expressway into a six-lane highway needs a budget of PHP2.2 billion but Flores said the amount would increase with the many improvements proposed by Governor Albert Garcia.
Meanwhile, JM Garcia of the provincial office of the Philippine Information Agency in Balanga City reported that 4,700 full-grown trees along the expressway will be uprooted and transferred to sites in Abucay town.
Flores said trees with a diameter of 0.60 meters and below are undergoing earth-balling for transfer to re-planting sites.
He said studies showed a survival rate of 70 percent for earth-balled trees. (Ernie Esconde/PNA)
