EXPECT traffic in downtown Dagupan to lighten up significantly by June when the new six-kilometer Dawel-Lucao bypass road is finally opened.

Second Pangasinan engineering district head Rodolfo Dion said construction work on the diversion road project to include the new 300-meter bridge is ahead of schedule by some three months, thus the possible opening of the road to motorists by June instead of September.

Concreting works are almost complete, Dion told the Pantongtongan Tayo radio program of the Philippine Information over Radyo ng Bayan-DZMQ last Tuesday. The construction crew is finishing a portion of the Lucao section, he said.

Motorists from the north bound for Lingayen need not pass thru the traffic-laden downtown area, saving them travel time by least 30 minutes to an hour. The new road will connect the Bonuan road to the Dagupan-Binmaley roadline in barangay Lucao, some 500 meters away from the De Venecia diversion road that connects Lucao to Calasiao.

The road construction project worth some P500 million was funded locally thru the countryside development fund of House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr., while the P1-billion bridge that will span the Pantal river in the Babaliwan area was funded thru a loan with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)

On the planned city’s circumferential road project, Dion said there are plans to build a new road to link Dawel and Tambac or Bolosan, and another road to link Perez Boulevard to Tambac.

The latter route, conceived some years back, encountered a problem on land acquisition however. Owners of properties to be affected strongly rejected the plan.

Meanwhile, the flood-prone Lucao road (the section from the Trauma Hospital to the highway junction) will be elevated by some half meter, he said. Part of the P20-million project is rehabilitation of the drainage system in the area, he added. The project starts next month.

Funding for the proposed elevation of the other flood-prone road in barangay Caranglaan is also being worked out, Dion said.

A similar drainage rehabilitation project is due for implementation in the easily-flooded Bonuan road , he said.

Dion also bared that he had proposed construction of two more pedestrian overpasses in the city – one in front of the holding area (former Pantranco terminal) on M. H. del Pilar street, and the other in front of the University of Pangasinan on Arellano street.

The overpass in front of Nepo Mall has been completed. Another in front of the CSI Market Square in the downtown area is under construction. (DOS/PIA)