P1B “Super Highway” will benefit Dagupan Growth Center

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN – The proposed almost P1 billion “super highway” that connects three villages in Dagupan City will be beneficial to the city’s growth center, according to the top honcho of the Department of Public Works & Highway.

ECONOMIC STIMULANT - A picture-grab from the internet of a super
 highway in other country.

“Malaking bagay iyan! Ito iyong makakatulong sa growth center,” District Engineer Rodolfo Dion of the Pangasinan 2nd Engineering District said on the multiplier effect of the almost three kilometers proposed multi-million pesos highway that cross Barangays Bonuan Guest, Mamalingling, and Bolosan  to the vaunted economic growth center in the Pantal-Lucao Area that will be a hub of Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing and others.

To ease the traffic in Dagupan City, Dion proposed to 4^th District Congressman Christopher De Venecia to lobby the national government for a fund to jump start this almost three kilometers highway.

“It will be four lanes with three bridges that cost P900 million to P1billion,” Dion cited.

The District Engineer said that every kilometer would be priced at P200 million because of the materials needed to file on the fishpond areas and the expropriation cost on the right of way.

The right of way, where private properties will be ejected, is estimated by P60 million, he cited.

If acted favorably by the national government, the construction will start in year 2019 and end in 2021.

He said the plan is to divide it into three phases where one phase is equivalent to one year.

The four lanes highway will be similar to the Judge Jose De Venecia Highway Extension where Dion oversaw its construction decades ago.

He said the DPWH could not just reduce the budget from P900 million to P600 million because they were following a set of costing on the materials for that years.

The new highway will cater to people that traverse the Eastern Part of Pangasinan like those in Mangaldan and San Jacinto towns, where they would avoid the traffic prone AB Fernandez Street in Dagupan City, in going to Lingayen and other parts of Western Pangasinan.

“These areas will become growth center too,” Dion cited on the peripheries of the proposed highway he brainchild.