The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is currently working on a road that would route traffic away from the narrow and crowded Daang Maharlika or Manila South Road in the proper town of Sariaya, Quezon Province.
“Motorists going in and out of Southern Luzon and Bicol Region will have an alternative road by 2017 as our workers are already laying the 7-kilometer Sariaya Bypass Road which will handle traffic plying between Sariaya and Lucena City, effectively easing traffic congestion along Daang Maharlika,” said DPWH Secretary Rogelio L. Singson.
The road project, which also includes four (4) bridges, will bypass Daang Maharlika, starting at Barangay Sampaloc 2 in Sariaya, passing through a rolling terrain of mostly rice fields and coconut plantations in Barangay Tumbaga, Pili, Hibanga, Talim and exiting Quezon Eco-Tourism Road in Barangay Isabang, Lucena City.
According to Singson, DPWH has initially allocated in 2014 and 2015 a total of P125 million for the grubbing and removal of vegetation within the road allowance, covering the 6.2 kilometer of agricultural land. The clearing of remaining 1.94 kilometer road will start in 2016 while concreting of the road would begin once the road allowance along the 7-kilometer road has been cleared from geographic obstacles.
DPWH Region 4A is also working on the construction of the bridge components of the Sariaya Bypass Road. On-going bridge projects include the Morong ang Gibanga Bridges in the amount of P130 million while the two (2) remaining bridges: Tumbaga and Isabang costing P100 million will commence in 2016.
Once completed, the Sariaya Bypass Road is expected to provide better, safer and faster transport of goods to markets from the Southern Luzon, and thus boost the social and economic development of Sariaya and the whole Quezon Province.