THE Metro Manila Development Authority has deployed more personnel to help ease up traffic congestion in eastern Metro Manila amid public complaints over the construction of the Light Railway Transit-2 East Expansion Project.
Irked commuters and motorists residing in the cities of Marikina, Pasig and Antipolo said the Department of Transportation and its contractor D.M. Consunji Inc. should have first made an efficient traffic plan before they started the construction last year.
MMDA concurrent general manager and officer-in-charge Thomas Orbos said he deployed more men to direct and manage traffic along Marcos Highway to address the gridlock in the area connecting the three cities.
He said the MMDA, in close coordination with the newly formed Inter-Agency Committee on Traffic Management, will also deputize personnel from the private contractor to help government traffic enforcers in manning traffic from Ligaya Street in Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo City.
“We have to address and ease the traffic situation along Marcos Highway as soon as possible with these traffic measures such as deployment of traffic personnel and come out with the rerouting plan,” Orbos said.
He said the MMDA will also implement a traffic rerouting scheme for Marcos Highway:
Motorists coming from Cubao/Katipunan to Antipolo shall take Aurora Blvd., right at Katipunan, Carlos P. Garcia Avenue, left at Ortigas Avenue extension to destination and vice versa. They can also take A. Bonifacio Avenue (to Marikina City proper), straight to Sumulong Highway to destination and vice versa.
Those coming from Antipolo City to Quezon City are advised to take Ortigas Avenue extension, left at Kaytikling towards Taytay Palengke, East Bank Service Road, left at Legaspi Bridge, left at C. Raymundo to destination to vice versa.
Motorists from Cainta, Rizal going to Quezon City may take Felix Avenue left at Kagihawaan Street/Magsaysay Street, right at Amang Rodriguez Avenue, left at Calle Industria to Carlos P. Garcia, to destination and vice versa, while those coming from Caintavia Valley Golf to Cubao, Quezon City from Ortigas Avenue extension left Don Celso Tuazon Avenue, take Sumulong Highway to destination and vice versa.
Orbos ordered his men to install six closed-circuit television cameras in strategic areas to continue monitor the traffic situation along the major thoroughfare which serves as the main gateway of vehicles coming from eastern Metro Manila as well as from the provinces of Rizal.
The MMDA also coordinated with the local government units and other stakeholders in the affected localities on what other measures could be done to ease traffic along Marcos Highway.
MMDA officials admitted that the snail-paced traffic along Marcos Highway was mainly due to the high volume of vehicles plying the route and the current construction of the LRT-2 extension.
They added undisciplined motorists are also causing gridlock at the approach to Marcos Highway, as the vehicles tried to squeeze into the split of the two-lane Barangka Flyover going to Marikina City.
D.M. Consunji Inc. bagged the contract for the construction of LRT-2 East Extension from the railway’s current end-station in Santolan in Pasig City to Masinag in Cainta, Rizal with a winning bid of P2.27 billion.
Two additional stations will be built in the area: the Emerald station in front of Robinson’s Place Metro East in Cainta, Rizal and the Masinag station at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City. The contractor has been given 18 months to complete the civil works for the elevated guideway or viaduct.
The government stated that the project will be operational by the 3rd Quarter of 2017 and is expected to cater to an additional 75,000 daily passengers living in densely populated areas of Rizal.
The system is a crucial transportation service that hundreds of thousands of passengers rely on.
Another railway extension project, this time on the western end, is now in the pipeline after being approved by the National Economic and Development Authority board last year.
Officially called the LRT-2 West Extension Project, this project will extend the line from its current end-station in Recto up to Pier 4 in Manila.
The 13.8-kilometer Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 2, also known as Megatren, started its operation in 2003. It traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, Marikina and Pasig.
