City eyeing putting up of 12 parking structures

October 31, 2019 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY October 29 – The city government is planning to put up twelve parking structures in the different parts of the city to provide adequate parking spaces for the increasing number of motor vehicles and contribute in overall efforts to ease the worsening traffic jams, especially in the central business district area.

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said the city government is looking forward to the realization of the initial three parking structures in strategic areas of the city to jump start the proposed put up of additional private and public parking structures to partly address the parking needs of residents and tourists alike.

He added that developers of big parking terminals in Metro Manila have already signified their intention to build some of the city’s proposed parking terminals outside the central business district area to help decongest the city proper by bringing to the outskirts some of the parking terminals.

Aside from the proposed parking structures in the Ganza pay parking site, the old city auditorium and the Baguio Athletic Bowl, other sites where the parking structures are proposed include the back of the Baguio Convention Center, the existing property of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Slaughterhouse Compound, a private property in Irisan, a portion of the ceded property to the city government in the Baguio Dairy Farm, the proposed 8-storey city hall expansion building and some private properties within the central business district area.

The construction of multi-level parking structures has been a long-standing proposal of the city government and some sectors to help address the worsening traffic congestion around the city, especially the central business district area, but the areas where the parking structures will be erected had been a major hindrance to the realization of the project in the previous years.

The city government is contemplating to undertake the construction of the parking structures through public-private partnership (PPP) as the city does not have sufficient funds to simultaneously implement the said projects aside and there are several private companies interested to partner with the city for the construction of parking structures in strategic areas in the city.

Based on the data obtained from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Baguio City field office, there are already over 64,000 private and public motor vehicles that are registered in the city and these contribute to daily traffic congestion in major roads aggravated by the inadequate parking spaces.

The put up of parking structures in strategic areas in the city is one of the programs, projects and activities of the city government to implement the present administration’s 15-point collective agenda on aggressive traffic management.

Dexter A. See/ABN