Baguio City, Philippines—The Sangguniang Panlungsod of Baguio recently passed a resolution requesting to put on hold the contract awarding of the P50 million-worth phase one bike lane project to its winning contractor.
This is after the city council discovered that the formulated plan does not conform to the latest guidelines of the Department of Public Works and Highways, which mandates the conduct of a feasibility study and that, the ‘shared roadway type’ of the bike lane is suitable for the city.
In a press release by the City Council of Baguio, they informed that DPWH-Baguio City District Engineering Office (DPWH-BCDEO) obtained a memorandum on the first week of this month, mandating all-district engineers to abide by the Updated Guidelines and Standard Drawings for Bicycle facilities in the design of national roads for the installation of bike lanes, of which a copy of it was forwarded to the city council.
As contained in the new guidelines, a feasibility study should be conducted prior to the installation of bicycle lanes to determine their suitability on the proposed roads.
With the said standard procedure, several members of the body questioned the City Engineering Office's move as they proceeded in the bidding without the conduct of the feasibility study.
The city council said that the conduct of the study is necessary to assure bikers and motorists of their safety when the plan is realized.
In connection with the ‘guideline issue’, it was mentioned that there are three types of bike lanes, the Shared Use Path, the Separated Bike Lane, and the Shared Roadway type, in which the latter, according to DPWH-BCDEO is the one suited for the city’s roads.
A shared roadway is a part of the road which can be both utilized by bicycles and motor vehicles.
As planned, 6.45 km shared roadways and 7.25 km separated bike lanes have been designated along the six identified routes.
This was also questioned since it does not follow the prescribed guidelines, as part of the planned roads were designed to be used as separated bike lanes.
The six routes for the proposed bike lanes include Loakan-Apugan Barangay Hall to Leonard Wood Road; BGH Rotonda to Panagbenga Park via Military Cut-off; Justice Hall to Kalaw Street via Harrison Road; Governor Pack to BGH Rotonda; Harrison Road to M. Roxas via Magsaysay Street/ Bonifacio Street; and City Hall to Marcos Highway via Legarda Road.
The august body also requested for a presentation of an improved plan of said bike lane project in conformity with the guidelines and requirements of the DPWH for national roads and suggestions of barangay officials when it comes to the barangay roads.
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