Bokod mayor Mauricio Macay last week blamed the failure of the implementer of the P1.5-billion worth Baguio-Aritao Road Improvement Project (BARIP) to turn over the project to the Department of Public Works and Highways for the lack of maintenance along the important route.

“No turnover, no maintenance,” he said as he raised concern about the number of slides along the highway that have not been cleared, posing danger to motorists.

He said since CAVDEAL, the road contractor, has yet to turn the project over to the DPWH, the latter could not come in to maintain the road.
“So it remains to be the responsibility of CAVDEAL to maintain the road but it is nowhere to be found,” he said.

The contractor, it was learned, has since shifted operation to Palawan where it is implementing a major road project.

Macay also pressed for the need to put up more road signs and fences as well as stone boxes on the slopes for added protection.

At the same time, he scored the DPWH for not coordinating with the local government unit of Bokod in the implementation of road projects.

Two months earlier, DPWH regional director Mariano Alquiza vowed to follow up the scheduled turnover of the highway with his superior, Sec.
Hermogenes Ebdane to ascertain the exact date.

He revealed that Engr. Osmundo Hortaleza, project manager of the BARIP, had also inquired on the schedule of turnover of the project that has been completed since July.

There is no word from Alquiza on any development since then.

The road project was declared as completed with the putting up of a 1.7-kilometer by-pass road and two-way concrete bridge along a route that skirted the Ambuclao Dam and was carved out from a steep ridge that overlooks the dam itself.

The original plan was for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to preside over the turnover before her state of the nation address last July but this failed to materialize.