THE Culiat Bridge 2 in Quezon City is now open to light vehicles, two weeks after it was damaged by a fire, Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon said on Monday.
Dizon and Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte inspected the bridge on Congressional Avenue in Barangay Bahay Toro and jointly declared the eastbound and westbound lanes open after the structure underwent a load test.
Dizon ordered the bridge closed after the July 11 fire destroyed 46 houses built by informal settlers under the bridge.
Belmonte said at least 38 families living under the bridge were housed at temporary shelters in Barangay Batasan Hills.
“The local government has also been relocating other families living in other bridges across the city to their permanent in-city homes,” she said.
“We would just make sure that these bridges and other danger zones must be off-limits at all times so that the fire under Culiat bridge would no longer be repeated in other similar structures,” Belmonte said.
Dizon said the DPWH implemented temporary repairs on the buckled and raised portions of the bridge’s asphalt road, while a technical team conducted a comprehensive study on the structure’s full rehabilitation.
Dizon and Belmonte were confident the bridge would be open to all types of vehicles in two to three weeks.
