Only Light Vehicles Can Pass
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan – Users of the collapsed steel
bridge in Barangay Wawa, Bayambang can cross it again after two weeks, according to
the chief of the Department of Public Works & Highway.
A five-ton temporary bridge will be completed before or after November 7 this year to replace the portion of the 20-ton limit bridge that fell recently after a 63.5 overloaded 12 - wheeler dump truck crossed it.
“Hindi lang magkabagyo
kahit two weeks,” disclosed to this writer by 4th District Engineering
Office’s Chief Simplicio D. Gonzales.
He said the Bailey bridge arrived last Monday from the
regional office of the DPWH in San Fernando City, La Union Province.
A Bailey bridge is a type of portable pre-fabricate
truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military
use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian
and American military engineering units. It has the advantages of requiring no
special tools or heavy equipment to assemble. The wood and steel bridge
elements were small and light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into
place by hand without the use of a crane (Wikipedia)
“Nag start na siya, retrieve
na lang iyong mga nahulog na (debris). Siguro magsisimula na (October 25)
kini-clear lang. Andoon na ang Bailey at mga equipment”.
Workers of the DPWH and not those of a private contractor
will install the temporary 13 meters link from the bank to the still passable
part of the of the Carlos Romulo Bridge.
Vehicles that are not more than five tons (five thousand
kilos) could pass by the temporary bridge.
He said the DPWH regional director Ronnel M. Tan recommended
to the national government a total replacement of another 490-meter concrete
bridge for the damaged one.
A new 490 meters’ concrete bridge could cost the national coffer half a billion
pesos.
Gonzales said that every meter of the bridge is pegged at P1
million. Its cost however can exceed because of the design.
“Depende iyan sa taas.
Magkakaroon iyan ng survey. Depende iyan sa taas kasi nag va-vary sa length hindi
mo na agad ma determine kung magkano,” he explained to Northern Watch
Newspaper.
Gonzales blamed the driver of the 63.5 tons overloaded dump
truck ferrying sand and gravel as the culprit that cause a portion of the 20
tons’ capacity 1945 vintage Carlos P. Romulo Bridge or Wawa Bridge in Barangay
Wawa, Bayambang, Pangasinan to collapse last October 20 with the big truck and an
Elf truck that followed it.
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