ILOILO City – The officer-in-charge of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6 is not keen on seeking accountability on the P680-million newly-built but still unusable flyover in Barangay Ungka II, Pavia, Iloilo.
“If we keep looking back on who caused the problem, we may not be able to find solutions,” OIC Regional Director Sanny Boy Oropel told Panay News.
The four-lane Ungka flyover suffers from vertical displacement. It is sinking.
On Aug. 15, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Works and Highways held an inquiry. Nothing concrete came out of it. Committee chairman Cong. Romeo Momo of Surigal del Sur said another would be conducted but he did not yet set a specific date.
The flyover was completed by contractor International Builders Corporation (IBC) in August 2022 when the DPWH-6 was still headed by then Regional Director Tiburcio DL Canlas. He was succeeded in September 2022 by Regional Director Nerie Bueno. Oropel was appointed to the post only early this month, taking over from Bueno. He said his focus is finding solutions to the problematic Ungka flyover.
“Moving forward, we seek solution or rectification to the problem at hand,” said Oropel.
The Ungka flyover – 453.7 lineal meters long on bored pile foundation, including the approaches – was fully opened to traffic on Sept. 5, 2022. But DPWH-6 shut it down after just two weeks, citing vertical displacement.
To date, the flyover remains closed to traffic, spawning traffic congestion in Barangay Ungka II, Pavia and the adjacent Barangay Ungka, Jaro, Iloilo City.
Oropel expressed hope that this week DPWH central office’s Bureau of Design (BOD) would be able to announce what engineering solution to introduce to the flyover based to the recommendations of a third party consultant – Abinales Associates Engineers+Consultants – tapped to conduct a geotechnical investigation on the structure.
According to Oropel, he learned from DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan last week that the BOD was instructed to hasten its review of the findings of Abinales Associates.
Abinales Associates submitted its findings on June 19, 2023 after three months of geotechnical investigation from March to May.
According to Oropel, Abinales Associates reviewed Ungka flyover’s design made by the contractor that BOD tapped – the United Technology Consolidated Partnership (UTCP).
He did not say if Abinales Associates’ geotechnical investigation also covered the construction processes of contractor IBC.
House Committee on Public Works and Highways’ chairman Cong. Momo had said he wanted Abinales Associates and flyover contractor IBC present in the next inquiry.
The construction of the Ungka flyover started on January 2020. It passes over the busy intersection of the Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Avenue (Diversion Road) and the President Corazon C. Aquino Avenue (Circumferential Road 1) and also aims to decongest the area.
On May 2023, Engr. Adam Abinales, managing partner of Abinales Associates Engineers + Consultants, disclosed the three schemes they recommended for the flyover’s repair:
* Scheme 1: Provide additional bored piles.
Pros – Group pile capacity will significantly increase to sustain the required demand capacity at the pier base.
Cons – To drive the additional bored piles, affected existing prestressed concrete (PSC) girders on coping beams will be removed and replaced, if necessary, since large equipment will be used for drilling and driving bored piles.
* Scheme 2: Provide a portal frame to support the existing PSC girders.
Cons – To drive the new bored piles to construct and support the portal frame, right-of-way acquisition will be a great challenge; the portal frame will ignore the effect of the existing piers to support the PSC girders already installed.
* Scheme 3: Underpinning the existing piers and abutments, including existing bored piles, by intense jet grouting.
Pros – Underpinning will only require at least three meters of vertical clearance; therefore, existing PSC girders may not need to be removed and replaced.
Cons – Quantities of staged grouting will depend on the soil condition and stratum to develop the required pile capacity to sustain the demand load capacity at each pier/abutment. This scheme should be handled by the specialty contractor for intensive jet grouting, which is a proprietary specialty work. Verification is required by performing a static load test of the jet grouting.
Oropel said he would be attending the next inquiry.
Ilonggo Kabataan party-list’s Rep. Raoul Danniel Manuel who sought the inquiry had suggested that the next one be held in Iloilo for the committee to fully appreciate the urgency of this matter./PN
