THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said starting next week, measures will be taken to make Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City safer for pedestrians and motorists alike.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said in a media briefing on Tuesday that the government would spend around P70 million to construct necessary safety and lighting structures on both sides of the 10-lane, 8-kilometer road.

This move came after veteran journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, also a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), was killed when the taxi she was riding was rammed by a speeding bus near the U-turn slot in front of the UP Techno Hub in Commonwealth Avenue.

Singson said the Philippine road authorities sent data taken from Commonwealth Avenue to road experts in Australia and South Korea to determine what “obvious engineering interventions” the government should take.  

The avenue is now branded a killer highway because of the increasing number of fatal vehicular accidents there.

“It looks like there are important findings [of the experts] but we do not want to preempt our preliminary exchanges with the MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority],” Singson said.

“We do not need an expert opinion to determine that [Commonwealth Avenue] is unsafe,” he also said.

The DPWH is responsible for the construction of safety structures on major roads in Metro Manila, while the MMDA is tasked to formulate and implement traffic rules.

In the past, the MMDA placed concrete road barriers and U-turn slots in some areas of the metropolis. Some of these were eventually blamed for worsening the traffic situation and for causing more traffic accidents.

Singson noted that some points on Commonwealth Avenue have been designated as disembarkation lanes.

But to reach them, pedestrians would still have to cross the road and risk being sideswiped by the buses, he said.

Singson said engineering changes on Commonwealth Avenue, like the construction of pedestrian-friendly overpass or foot bridges, would take some time.

In the meantime, he suggested that a speed limit be strictly imposed by the MMDA to avoid more accidents and fatalities.

“We suggest that the MMDA enforce traffic rules immediately. If they say there should be a 60-kilometer-per-hour speed limit, we should order the traffic enforcers to strictly implement it,” he said.  

Singson also suggested putting up lane separators for specific vehicles because the wider span of the road invites motorists to go on a fast lane.

“The experts suggested that maybe there should be softer barriers, plastic or rubberized,” Singson said. “That is the assessment of the experts. It’s such a wide boulevard that the tendency is to go on high speed.”