Philippines: Tagpopongan Roro Port Now 50% Complete

Philippine Ports Authority Port District Office-Southern Mindanao (PPA PDO-SoMin) Engineering Services Division (ESD) here recently announced that the construction of Tagpopongan Port is now half way through completion.

According to the ESD Manager Engr. Asterio Gallardo, Jr., the said port project is now 50.94 percent accomplished as of December 25, 2010 and is ahead by 4.6 percent of its actual 430-day contract time. Contracted by MRB Construction and Supply (MRBCS), it is scheduled to be fully accomplished by August 11, 2011.

Engr. Gallardo revealed that the project should have been finished as early as February 11, 2011 based on its original contract time with MRBCS. The date of the effectivity of the said contract was set on December 8, 2009 yet.

However, construction schedule has been stalled twice for justifiable reasons such as the Election Ban starting on February 12, 2010 and the President Benigno Aquino’s Suspension Order No. 01 for all Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) infrastructure projects beginning on July 21, 2010. Overall, the project has incurred 181 days in delay, albeit legitimate.

The P37.79 million infrastructure project covers the following civil works: the construction of 9X12 meter Roll On Roll Off (RoRo) Ramp, a 21X12 meter reinforced concrete wharf and a 58 meter rock causeway.

Tagpopongan Port, located in the southern part of Island Garden City of Samal (IGACoS) in Davao del Norte will soon form part of a network of RoRo-capable ports nationwide as a lateral link of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH).

Alongside this development, the Pantukan RoRo Port, situated across Tagpopongan, is also underway. It also has the same features as the latter except that its rock causeway is only 15 meters.

Although construction of both ports have been bid out and contracted at the same time, Pantukan is faced with another cause of delay – the resolution of its road right of way in addition to the above cited legitimate suspensions.

Still, PPA has been able to push through with an 11 percent of Pantukan’s program of work and is positive that the Local Government Unit (LGU) will be able to resolve its access problem within 2011.

Once completed, Pantukan Port, situated in neighboring Compostela Valley Province, is set to directly connect with Tagpopongan Port in IGACoS and vice versa, making exchanges of goods, people and services between the two municipalities faster and more frequent in the area through sea transport.

Likewise, both LGUs here are open to the idea of plying buses and fastcrafts for the two routes in a move to shorten travel cycles using the RoRo concept like that of the current Davao City-IGACoS-Davao City short-haul trips .

Then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has earlier envisioned linking all adjacent islands by strengthening connectivity through the Road-RoRo Transport System (RRTS).

By using RoRo ports and vessels, travel time is significantly reduced, hence, opening up greater opportunities for local economies such as the Davao Region to participate in trade, transport and tourism activities on a larger scale. (PPA XI PDO-SoMin)

[mappress]

Source: pia, February 8, 2011