AN angry Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon has ordered a contractor to repair a section of EDSA where potholes have cratered the newly paved asphalt.
Dizon inspected the southbound lane of EDSA near Buendia Ave. in Makati City following days of heavy rain.
He found that rainwater had pooled on the newly rehabilitated pavement and eroded the asphalt.
He immediately ordered the contractor who did the rehabilitation to repair the potholes, saying that the “government will not pay for it.”
Dizon traced the problem to a basic but critical issue: water had nowhere to go.
“This is the lowest point of Phase 1. All the water that comes down here stays here,” Dizon said during his inspection of the EDSA Busway at Estrella in Makati.
The affected portion has no adequate drainage outlet, allowing rainwater to accumulate along the dedicated bus lane. With the heavy volume of vehicles passing over the saturated pavement, the water accelerated the deterioration of the asphalt.
Dizon said an ideal design would have provided drainage near the center of the road. But the presence of the MRT infrastructure complicated the situation.
His immediate solution was to install gaps between the concrete barriers along the busway to let rainwater drain.
The damage on EDSA puts the spotlight on the quality-control demands surrounding the highway’s massive rehabilitation program, a priority infrastructure project of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
