ILOCOS SUR – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region 1 assured that the Calungbuyan Bridge in the municipality of Santa in Ilocos Sur will provide safer and faster transportation to five coastal barangays.
According to DPWH Region 1 Spokesperson Esperanza Tinaza, travel time from Santo town proper to the coastal barangays will be reduced from one hour to just 15 minutes.
She said residents will also be travelling with the use of land vehicles instead of the previous mode, which was with boats, or bancas.
The new bridge connects the town proper of Santa Ilocos Sur to Barangays Rancho, Dammay, Calungbuyan, Oribi, and Casiber.
The new Calungbuyan bridge has a Langer Arch Bridge design with substructure resting on bored pile foundation, superstructure component (pre-fabricated steel), and a driven steel sheet piles with concrete cap as riverbank protection structure that replaced the old and damaged Calungbuyan bridge. It measures 130 lineal meters and has a total project cost of P379.23 million from the 2016-2019 General Appropriations Acts (GAA).
The new bridge offers a huge help to residents as it will provide easier access to social and health services, as well as allow better transport of goods and services.
It is also expected to spur tourism in the town, which has secluded beaches in the coastal barangays, which could not be reached in the past.