High impact projects inspected
The city’s project monitoring team (PMT) led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña inspected ongoing big-ticket projects in the city last week.
The team did ocular inspections and met with project contractors and implementing agencies to evaluate each project.
As usual, the mayor reiterated to both project contractors and implementing agencies the need to deliver quality projects to ensure that these will last for the maximum benefit of the public.
Among the high impact projects evaluated were the ongoing youth convergence center, tennis court, athletes’ quarters and gate construction all at the Baguio Athletic Bowl at Burnham Park.
Dela Peña said the projects had been experiencing delays and one of the reasons was the need to reroute the drainage network necessitating more ground work.
A conference with the implementing agency and the contractor ensued where they threshed out the problems and looked for solutions.
During the meeting, the mayor stressed that even if the project contractor had to resort to its catch up plan to make it to the deadline, he had to ensure that the project standard will not be sacrificed.
Also inspected was the Wright Park reflection pool rejuvenation project which began last January and is now nearing completion. The new pool is scheduled for a ten-day test run starting in the last week of August before its turn-over to the city.
Other projects inspected and their status were:
*Lay-by project at Mines View which has been completed and opened to the public last June 24.
*Diversion and expansion of the road in front of Botanical Garden which is on schedule; and
*Post Office Park improvement also on schedule and scheduled for turn-over by the end of July.
The project monitoring team is composed of the heads and representatives of the City Buildings and Architecture Office, City Engineering Office and the City Environment and Parks Management Office and was joined by the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers Baguio Chapter.
Since institutionalizing project monitoring and inspection before payment issuance, the city has noted vast improvement in the quality of infrastructure projects funded by the city government over the years.
For city roads and other projects funded by the Dept. of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the city is also part of the final inspection and therefore has a say in the assessment of the outcome.
The mayor said they will sustain inspections of projects all over the city to help ensure quality implementation of these infrastructures as part of the city’s thrust to foster integrity in project implementation to achieve quality and beneficial outputs for the end users. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
