By RUBEN VELORIA | 

SUBIC BAY FREPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will undertake several road and drainage improvement projects to control flooding brought about by heavy rains and rising tides in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the Subic agency has already green-lighted flood-mitigation projects, including a P20-million drainage improvement project at the Argonaut Highway-Gateway Park area that is expected to curb tidal flooding in Subic’s Central Business District.

She said the SBMA has also set other flood-mitigation projects like raising the elevation of the Dewey Avenue-Manila Avenue intersection, which suffers heavily from tidal flooding, and de-clogging storm drains at the vicinity of the SBMA Dispensary along Dewey Avenue.

The P20-million drainage improvement project will be bid out to contractors before the end of the year while the road improvement project is expected to start early next year, she added.

Eisma explained that aside from exceptionally heavy rains this wet season, flooding at low-lying areas in the Subic Freeport has been exacerbated by rising tide.

“As you know, most flat lands in the Subic Freeport, including the Central Business District, were reclaimed by the US Navy after the World War II to construct the biggest US naval facility outside the US mainland. This area was mostly swampland before it became a naval base,” Eisma pointed out.

“When our Engineering Department conducted water-level elevation checks in the past several months, they found out that some flooding occurred here during high tide even in the summer months,” she said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes tidal flooding, known also as sunny-day flooding, as “temporary inundation of low-lying areas, especially streets, during exceptionally high tide events, such as at full and new moons.”

During exceptionally high tide, water level rises higher than storm drains and water flows back into the street.

NOAA warned that tidal flooding will be a regular scenario in low-lying communities, especially coastal areas like the Subic Bay Freeport.

Meanwhile, SBMA Engineering Department head Gary Fernandez said that the SBMA will start the rehabilitation of El Kabayo Road, which leads to the Binictican housing area here.

Fernandez said that El Kabayo is identified as one of the areas in the Freeport with perennial flooding problem, along with the Tipo Road-Maritan Highway junction.

The El Kabayo project will be undertaken with a P9.2-million fund from the SBMA’s corporate budget.

On the other hand, Fernandez said the NLEX Corporation, which operates the Subic-Tipo Expressway, has proposed to widen the Tipo Road into a four-lane highway, and elevate certain road sections to solve flooding problems.

Fernandez said that should the road and drainage improvement projects be finished on time, tidal flooding will be minimized, if not totally eliminated by the next rainy season.

TOP PHOTO: Workmen repair a portion of Maritan Highway in the Subic Bay Freeport that was damaged during heavy rains. (Photos by Jun Dumaguing)