By Yas Ocampo
DAVAO CITY – The city government will be working on the next phase of the Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) underground cabling project.
NASTY CABLES – Overhead cables hanging from street poles will soon be a thing of the past in Davao City after the city government ordered the resumption of the implementation of an ordinance, mandating that all street cables should be buried underground. (Keith Bacongco/MANILA BULLETIN)
In a notice posted along C.M. Recto Street here, the city government assured commuters that road work will be from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day, starting this week.
The work on the underground cables will begin more than a year after Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio signed an ordinance outlining the ground work for the project.
Placing traditional overhead wires underground began as a project in 2014 by the late Councilor Leonardo Avila.
As a result, the city government ordered the power utility to construct a system that would place underground all cables, including those of other utilities such as cable, internet, telcos, and other pole users.
The ordinance also threatened to slap heavy fines on pole users whose lack of cooperation would delay work on the underground cabling of the wires.
The project expands an earlier pilot project around the city government grounds.
There are no longer any overhead wires along the streets surrounding the city government's main buildings Pichon and San Pedro Streets.
The initial plans involved the underground cabling of the wires along the Kadayawan Festival routes, such as C.M. Recto (formerly Claveria), R. Magsaysay (formerly Uyanguren), and Roxas Avenue.
The ordinance requires companies such as PLDT, Smart, Globe, as well as other pole users such as DCTECH, SkyCable, Bayantel to coordinate with the DLPC and comply with the requirement.
The Bureau of Fire Protection has also been informed of the measure, in case there are fire hydrants that could be affected by the project.