By Bernie Lopez
MMDA Director Bayani Fernando is the engineer-wanna-be who designed the expensive Kalayaan elevated u-turn which is presently under construction. Engineers I interviewed have termed it ‘Jurassic’, ‘irreversible’ and ‘defying international standards of traffic and safety’.
The core problem lies in Bayani’s perception that he is infallible and criticisms are simply ignored. Bayani’s bullheadedness is the issue. Kalayaan reflects not only a first-class engineering blunder, but also bad governance. The senior transportation engineers I interviewed have been building interchanges for decades.
First is an anecdote before we talk of Kalayaan. A World Bank mission came to town to review the infrastructure projects it was funding. Bayani asked to join the inspection. The consultant said there was no need. Bullheaded Bayani insisted, wanting to influence the review. So the mission gave in. Standing at an intersection, Bayani told the consultant what he thought should be done. On the spot, he made a sketch and handed it to the consultant, who suggested he pass it on to his designers first and make a formal technical study.
Bayani was so angered that he complained to head of the mission. When the consultant found out about that, he confronted Bayani and told him to complain directly to him next time. Infrastructure engineers say that the World Bank consultants today hesitate to give a go signal to Engineer Bayani’s infrastructure projects, many of which he himself designed from cloud nine. One such Bayani design rejected by the World Bank was the dual interchanges at SM North and R
Time and again, Bayani resorts to vengeance when his ideas are turned down. In Eastwood, he wanted to build a footbridge. When it was turned down, he closed all the u-turns to make it harder for all to move around. If you are in Eastwood and want to turn left on C-5, you have to go all the way to the Libis underpass to make a u-turn. However, Bayani was forced to open one u-turn because DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno uses that u-turn. There are higher GMA boys than Bayani.
Now, it will be easier to understand Kalayaan. The unfortunate thing about the Kalayaan interchange is – it is irreversible. To undo the blunder and build a proper long-term facility, the entire P600-million (it could be as large as a billion, engineers suggest) facility has to be torn down.
Bullheaded Bayani is also Band-aid Bayani. The Kalayaan interchange is the epitome of band-aid make-shift engineering. The engineers told me that the maximum speed of traffic depends on radius of curvature. The sharper the turn, the slower you go. The engineers showed me a table relating speed to curvature. The table gives the maximum of 20 meters curvature for urban facilities, the sharpest turn allowable, where maximum speed was set at 30 kph. The Jurassic Kalayaan has a curvature of 10 meters, which is not allowed by international or DPWH standards, because this is not only accident-prone for a heavily-used two lane turn, it also causes more traffic. In other words, Bayani’s P600 million caper will cause rather than prevent traffic. The many 16 wheelers passing through the C-5 Kalayaan interchange, need two lanes to make the turn, which will also cause more traffic. In basketball, we call it ‘forcing through’.
Bayani’s blunder was unfortunately backed up by Malacanang. DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane was supposed to make a presentation to GMA of a three-level interchange at Kalayaan. Bayani intercepted the ball and made his own presentation before Ebdane could stand up. GMA applauded Bayani’s blunder. Ebdane said there was no need to present since the boss had made a decision. Did the DPWH evaluate and approve Kalayaan, which is required by law? The engineers doubted it. Bad governance, especially from the very top, is the reason for all our woes. Knee-jerk decisions is disastrous governance.
In that presentation, Bayani said his concept was cheaper. He did not say it was unsafe or would cause more traffic, just cheaper. That was why GMA applauded his Jurassic design. The Kalayaan design defies all principles of cost-benefit. It simply talks about cost and forgets about benefit. In fact, the Kalayaan interchange has no benefit in terms of traffic flow and safety. Bayani says his design would save P3.6 million a year because there is no need for traffic lights, traffic aides, signage and other peripheral traffic control factors. Bayani did not know the ten-fold savings of P365 million a year for commuters who would be using less gas in a straight rather than curved elevated facility.
The engineers suggested that a straight elevation is better than a curved one, similar to the three-level Quezon Boulevard – EDSA interchange, which was the same design suggested by Ebdane for Kalayaan. The engineers suggested that a two-level would suffice at Kalayaan so it would be cheaper. They point out that for the same length, a straight road is by far cheaper to build than a curved one. The straight elevation option is safer, requires less gas, and yields better traffic flow.
Bayani has an attitude problem because he is not open to criticism. He sees his visionary design as creative and is blind to its weaknesses. Bayani is a symbol today of extremely dangerous and bad governance. The saying goes, “Arrogance is dangerous. Ignorance is dangerous. But the two together is deadly.”
beteljuice7@gmail.com
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