LUCENA CITY, Quezon – Construction of the bridge connecting Lopez to Quezon towns is now underway and is seen to shorten travel time to Quezon province’s Pacific shoreline and island towns of Perez and Alabat, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said Monday.
Engr. Celestial S. Flancia, DPWH-Quezon’s 4th Engineering District head, said once completed, the Lopez to Quezon bridge would be the province’s longest bridge spanning to some 800 meters, more than twice the length of the present Kalilayan Bridge in Unisan, Quezon which stretches to only 340 meters long.
Flancia said that the DPWH project has an initial funding of some PHP 250 million from the PHP 1 billion total funds allocated for the infrastructure.
He also clarified that the project site was chosen from the Lopez to Quezon town side instead of the Lopez to Atimonan side in consideration of the feasibility study, which factored the shortest connecting distance and safest route compared with other proposed sites.
He added that the Lopez to Quezon choice site was also based on the volume of vehicles and motorists that travel the route, including the boats that normally navigate in the area for berthing and port shelter during calamities.
Quezon town Mayor Cherry Clacio welcomed the bridge infrastructure that connects to her town as this will benefit not only the townfolks and spur economic development in the town but also redound to benefit the province’s eastern districts.
Clacio also dismissed criticisms that the bridge once completed might also ease movements of thieves and robbers to the area as police and the military could now gain mobility and logistical support through ease in transport and operations in the area.
Meanwhile, Alabat and Perez island town residents also expressed delight that the bridge infrastructure will speed up travel time for passengers, cargo, services and goods from the land to the connecting water transport system in the geographically isolated island towns. (Gideon Belen/PNA)
