TABUK, Kalinga – Improvement of the Calanan-Abbut road was completed in the third quarter of this year, a marked accomplishment in infrastructure development of the province by the Kalinga District Engineering Office (KDEO) which supervised its implementation.

According to OIC district engineer Leo Mustard, the P30-million concreting of the Cabaritan-Cawagayan road section was funded from the Department of Public Works and Highways regular infrastructure fund but was handled by the KDEO for closer supervision.

“This has solved the perennial problem of traffic towards that route since vehicular travel is being disturbed and commuters [are] stranded when vehicles could not reach the other end of the road during heavy downpour as the road turns muddy and becomes a hurdle,” Mustard said.

He said KDEO is also busy with other major infra projects in order to meet their target dates of accomplishment. The P27-M Balbalan-Pinukpuk road improvement, he said, is 70 percent accomplished and is expected to be complete by April of next year to  serve as an alternate road from Kalinga to Abra. He said the work scope includes concreting and road widening.

He reported that the P30-M Kalinga-Abra road is 35 percent done.
Mustard said these are all DPWH projects but are KDEO-supervised
On small infra projects in support to agriculture development of the region, Mustard said various farm-to-market roads (FMR) were also implemented by KDEO together with those funded out of the Priority Development Fund of congressman Manuel Agyao.

Ongoing FMRs are in Rizal with P4 M funding; Tanudan – P4 M; Lubuagan – P1 M; and Tinglayan – P1 M. 

Meanwhile, Engr. Alexander Colangan of the planning and design section informed that KDEO has a planned infrastructure budget of P105 M for 2009 for 17 projects. He said six projects already have their preliminary detailed engineering plans.