Road Projects in Mindanao

When you travel from General Santos City to Digos, what would you experience? TRAFFIC. How about from Kidapawan City to Cotabato City? TRAFFIC. And what about within Davao City? Still, TRAFFIC! So what the heck is all the traffic about? ROAD CONSTRUCTIONS. Yes, not only in the southern part, but the entire Mindanao is undertaking several road projects. From here to there, it is not surprising to see major road constructions, especially along national highways, and yes, be caught in the immense traffic.

So why are there several road constructions in Mindanao area? Which places can we expect these projects?

In a report from Manila Bulletin dated December 16, 2011, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had allocated P3 billion for construction of national road system (NRS) in Mindanao. This World Bank-assisted National Roads Improvement and Management Program is geared to provide multi-modal, safe, integrated, sustainable, environmentally sound and competitively priced transport system in Mindanao, reducing transport cost by at least 10%.

Among the roads involved in the project are:

Route	Span	Cost	Construction Activity
Malita – Don Marcelinno section of the Malalag-Malita-J.A. Santos road	31.476 km	P549.57M	Road Improvement
Digos-Kidapawan	53.10 km	P623.610M	Road Improvement
Kidapawan-Pagalungan	50 km	P379.10M	Road Improvement
Pagalungan-Junction Cotabato	58.22 km	P 977.493M	Road Improvement
Digos-Gen. Santos City		P512.246M	Landslide Risk Mitigation (34 sites)
Davao-Calinan-Buda			Landslide Risk Mitigation (4 sites)

Prior to this, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and concerned provincial governments had already bidded out P131.66M road projects in the provinces of Misamis Occidental and Bukidnon (Region 10), as well as in Agusan del Sur (Region 13), covering roughly 84.48 kilometers of roads (Philippine Information Agency).

January this year, the DPWH completed the P2.75 billion 105-kilometer Awang-Upi-Lebak-Kalamansig road or Central Mindanao Road Project which was loaned from Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA (Philippine Government Official Gazette).

In April, a P54M road rehabilitation project was undertaken in Misamis Occidental under the Provincial Roads Management Facility (PRMF) Year 2 (Mindanao Daily Balita).

This May, 2012 (Manila Bulletin), another road project began in Maguindanao. A United States-Philippines partnership program initiated a P98M road project which will connect four Maguindanao towns to neighboring urban centers. These towns are Buluan, Pandag, Paglat and S.K. Pendatun. Residents in the four remote municipalities in Maguindanao can now travel and transport their products safely and efficiently to the main highway running from Makilala in North Cotabato to Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat through the road.

There are still several on-going road constructions in many provinces, municipalities and cities. These road projects in Mindanao are simply indication of the inevitable progress, development and economic growth in the area.