Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar said the department is looking to extend the Cagayan de Oro Coastal Road from Misamis Oriental to Cagayan de Oro next year.
“To further ease mobility in the city, we hope to extend an additional 9.30 kilometers of road which will be under phase 2 of the project starting next year,” Villar said Wednesday.
The department, he said, is proposing in its 2021 budget the inclusion of Cagayan de Oro Coastal Road Phase 2 that will extend the road from Barangay Puerto in Opol, Misamis Oriental to Barangay Gusa, Cagayan De Oro City.
It is expected to further reduce travel time to and from Barangay Puerto and Barangay Igpit from the usual one hour and 30 minutes via Butuan City-Cagayan de Oro City-Iligan City Road (BCIR) to only 25 minutes via the CDO Coastal Road Extension.
“If the funding requirement will be released as scheduled, the project will be completed in the year 2024,” Villar said.
Street lights, sidewalk, bike lane, trees and other public space components will be included in the project to further improve the aesthetic of the road, the secretary said.
At present, the agency is working on the remaining civil works of 17.97-kilometer Cagayan de Oro Coastal Road Phase 1 Project in Barangay Puntod. It also covers the construction of a rotunda that will connect Cagayan de Oro’s 3rd Bridge to the remaining section of the project in the vicinity of the Philippine Ports Authority.
The road’s Gusa-Igpit section was opened to traffic in November 2017, traversing the local roads in Agora section to serve its purpose in catering passenger buses, cargo trucks, and other heavy-loaded equipment to help reduce traffic congestion in the city proper.