MAYOR Belen Fernandez reiterated that elevation of Arellano Street will be completed on March 31 but will return as  a two-way street 15 days earlier on March 15 in response to urgent demands by stakeholders.

In a talk to members of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas headed by its president Mark Espinoza of IFM Dagupan, Fernandez expressed confidence that the deadline given to contractors by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be met.

DPWH prioritized the reopening of Arellano Street to two-way traffic over the other road elevation projects under construction in order to end the sufferings of businessmen, residents, workers and students in the area.

Fernandez said that the deadline for completion of work on Arellano Street up to the foot of the Quintos Bridge on A. B. Fernandez Avenue, as well as from M. H. Del Pilar up to the foot of the Magsaysay Bridge are set for completion on April 15.

However, while work on M.H. Del Pilar Street is also going full-blast, completion of road elevation there might be delayed yet and be beyond April 15 because of an incident when an excavator broke a main pipeline of Pamana-Dagupan City Water District, causing temporary flood.

Fernandez admitted to KBP that it was she who sought the projects from the DPWH, noting that the funds of Dagupan City will be insufficient for all the infrastructure projects needed by the city, but it was the DPWH that prepared all the plans and programs based on their long studies about the usual height of the floods along these streets.

Based on the request of Mayor Fernandez, DPWH Regional Director Ronnel Tan submitted a program to the DPWH central office (that included projects for Dagupan) for funding under the General Appropriations Act of 2022.

In fact, she also approached Reps. Christopher d Venecia and Robert “Eskimo’ Estrella Jr., and even Speaker Martin Romualdez and senators  like Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Tolentino, Riza Honteveros, Imee Marcos, and Sonny Angara for help.

Refusing claims of the councilors, she said a meeting with businessmen and residents was done and door-to-door consultations were made but were later stopped to give way to the public hearing conducted by the Sanggunian’s majority.

She said business establishments and residential houses were allowed to connect their downspouts to the newly-built wider drainage system aside from helping establishment raise their frontage and many establishments already raised their frontage to level with the reconstructed roads, she said. (Leonardo Micua)

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