Leyte has 11.14 kilometers of unpaved primary highways and Samar has 5.50 kilometers of main road that needs paving.


“We are confident that by 2014, all of the region’s primary arterial road will be paved. That’s the timetable given to improve the surface of all national highways in Eastern Visayas,” Asis told Leyte Samar Daily Express.


The region has a total national road length of 2,424.24 kilometers with 1,406.72 are classified as primary arterial and 1,017.51 as secondary roads. At least 1,617.22 kilometers of the national highway is concrete and 445.09 kilometers with asphalt overlay.



The road connecting Samar and Eastern Samar provinces, which is included in the funding of Millennium Challenge Corporation, is out of list for road concreting by the central government.


The $214.44 million US-funded Secondary National Roads Development Project aims to rehabilitate the 220-kilometer road and improve the road condition from capital city of Borongan to a tourist destination in Guiuan. The project will start actual construction next year.


Asis said that the MCC funding is a welcome development considering that the national government budget for infrastructure is very limited to repair all bad roads in Samar. For 2011, the region needs P2.1 billion of budget to finance proposed infrastructure projects. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)

DPWH hastens upgrading P1. 3B unpaved national roads in EV