DAVAO CITY—The unfinished coastal road project here has earned a short-lived rave among health enthusiasts and curious residents over its sports center oval-like pavement that includes red-painted road tiles for joggers and bikers.
Last week, residents called the attention of barangay officials of two areas on the sudden swarm of joggers, vehicles and selfie photo-enthusiasts they said could bring unnecessary virus transmission risks to residents.
Barangays Talomo and Bago Aplaya immediately installed quarantine checkpoints to stop people from turning the strip of the coastal road along these two barangays into a promenade and park.
Barangay tanods soon turned back visitors as they attempted to enter the checkpoints in Talomo Cemento, which has a 4-lane road access to the coastal area, and in Bago Aplaya along the river, from which the project starts on the southwestern section of the city.
“People just show their DP identification card, whatever that is, to let them enter the project site,” a police auxiliary at the Bago Aplaya checkpoint told the BusinessMirror on Saturday. “There was even this crew [of a recently defunct television network] who said they need to take pictures of the road for their blog. We politely asked them to show us the blog.”
Workers at the site had also complained that visitors defaced the red paint of the pavement intended for bikers and joggers, and stomped their feet on fresh cement, according to the tanods.
Checkpoint personnel said they suspect that some visitors on cars were residents of Buhangin, a high-risk area for Covid-19 transmission. Nonetheless, a section of Talomo is on similar status with Buhangin.
“Residents are asking us to control these people, because they don’t know who these visitors are, and if they are positive of Covid-19,” the Talomo checkpoint personnel said.
Bago Aplaya personnel were also sent on regular motorcycle patrol to drive away anyone seen loitering along the stretch of the road project.
The coastal road project weaves through a stretch of coastal villages resided by informal settlers. The project design constructed the highway on reclaimed beach to avoid demolition of the settlers’ homes.
The project stretches through 18.5 kilometers and designated bikers and joggers’ lane on the side of the Talomo Bay, starting from Bago Aplaya and to R. Castillo of Agdao, with two bridges. The Department of Public Works and Highways estimate the project would have a P19.818-billion price tag.
The Bago Aplaya section of project has already been paved with asphalt and its adjacent joggers’ lane paved with road tiles and painted red. An esplanade is also being constructed. The section toward Talomo was already prepared for asphalting while the first major bridge, the Talomo-Matina section, of 660 meters long is being built.
The other bridge would be built along the Davao River in the Bucana area, at 800 meters.