The provincial government of Cebu and the Department of Public Works and Highways have partnered for road repair works in the province’s whale-watching town of Oslob.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on Tuesday said asphalt overlaying activities will be done on sections of the road that need repair, instead of a full re-blocking of the more than five-kilometer stretch of the South National Highway.

She said she wants the road repair to be completed right away as the current condition of the road in Oslob has caused much inconvenience to residents and tourists alike and became a subject of rants in social media.

Out of the 5,628 meters of road from the villages of Lagunde to Calumpang in Oslob that are scheduled for repair, the re-blocking will be implemented in a section comprising only 1.24 percent of the total stretch.

The capitol, in a statement, said re-blocking – a process of completely scraping off the dilapidated road infrastructure before pouring in new cement and an asphalt overlay – is considered more costly than asphalt overlay in some portions of the highway.

She said at least PHP11.9 million of the national budget will be saved for doing asphalt overlaying rather than a total re-blocking of the highway.

According to her, the DPWH-7 will make a double layering of asphalt for the road project, to ensure quality.

DPWH-7 regional director Ernesto Gregorio said they have presented to Garcia and other capitol officials the preventive maintenance report conducted by the Cebu 4th Engineering Office’s maintenance division to fast-track the ongoing road repair.

“As presented, the entire road network has been repaired, and the ongoing preventive maintenance works are being fast-track, at his juncture, the entire road network is already accessible to the traveling public and tourists,” Gregorio told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Gregorio said the capitol and the DPWH-7’s engineering office in the area will “closely monitor and conduct regular maintenance” of the road. (PNA)