ILOILO – Torrential rains on Monday softened the foundations of the hanging bridge in Barangay Ilawod Isian Norte, Leon town.
The 20-meter bridge hanging over a creek could collapse any time, according to the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO). The local government of Leon thus ordered the bridge’s temporary closure.
According to Feljean Cagape of the MDRRMO, the bridge served over 50 households or 250 residents of Barangay Ilawod Isian Norte, some five kilometers away from the town proper.
Residents of the adjacent barangay of Isian Casling in Tigbuan, Iloilo also used the bridge when going to Leon’s town center.
With the bridge closed, residents were crossing the creek below it again.
Cagape said there was an alternative bridge – a bamboo bridge – but this was far from the hanging bridge and residents would have to walk a considerable distance to reach it.
The hanging bridge, built only early this year, would be rehabilitated.
Cagape said the bridge’s structural design may have been the problem; its two main posts were near the creek – just around two meters – and easily reached by water./PN
