Building Bridges

I work in one of the contact centers in Makati and daily I go out my way from far-flung Valenzuela City bracing all the traffic and the oddities of a metropolitan traveller. I have been passing the same roads since time in memoriam. We have never lived in any other place so that explains why I have always been "at home" with all the roads that I pass by. Well, some months ago ( if memory serves me right, this was last April) the Tullahan bridge which connects Malabon and Navotas was closed for reconstuction. This was after six years of declaring the bridge as unsafe for motorists. Major traffic rerouting was formulated as part of the project. The problem is commuters (including me) will have to cut their trips from Valenzuela to Monumento. We need to shell out additional amount since the trip is cut into two. The usual fare of 10 pesos shoot up to 14. Kawawa naman mga estudyante! ( or should I say, kawawa ang mga magulang na nagbibigay ng mga allowances nila.) But my biggest fear amongst all these is the fact that the makeshift pedestrian bridge that DPWH made a few months ago was made of coco lumber. Yes, you read it right, COCO lumber. A few weeks ago, the Tullahan bridge was at the top of the news again because of an accident that happened one rainy night. The footbridge collapsed and caused some people to get hurt (one of them was our ninang). DPWH is pointing fingers again regarding this matter. They are saying that the volume of the water plus the trash was the culprit of the accident. After some time, they were able to provide steel footbridge on one side of the construction site. This was the bridge that I crossed over yesterday. This was the first time that I was able to crossed Tullahan on the left side. The other footbridge on the right side was permanently closed since San Miguel Plant was the owner of that small piece of land that serves as the location of the second footbridge. They said it was just "on loan " for public usage. Traffic was congested yesterday ( as usual), the reason why I have also expected the big volume of pedestrian crossers. True to what I was drawing up in mind, sobrang dami ng tao that time. It actually took me five minutes to be able to cross the footbridge. Ang nakakatakot nagswa sway ang bridge habang naglalakad ang maraming tao. Hindi lang yun, you will hear creaking sound as well which will eventually make you think na mukhang magigiba ang bridge na dinadaanan mo. People are panicking as well, mas madami kasing estudyante that time ang nagdadaan. True, the bridge was made up of steel right now, (or should I say steel railings) but what will caught your mind is the flooring that they used. They used the same plywoods from the dilapidated footbridge and what holds the bridge in its middle were just nylon wire which look too small for such big job as holding some 100 people all at the same time.

Hay, sa totoo lang mukhang mas matibay pa ang mga hanging bridges na nasa gubat kesa sa footbridge sa Tullahan.