A team from DA-PRDP’s IBUILD component conducted a punch listing activity for the 9.2 kilometers “Concreting of Bay-ang-Mahaba Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) with bridge” worth P148 million in Cabadbaran, City, Agusan del Norte. 

A punch listing activity is conducted towards the end of construction of a project where they list work not conforming to contract specifications that the general contractor must complete prior to final payment.

The FMR starts at Barangay Bay-ang in Cabadbaran City and runs along the Bay-ang – Mahaba Provincial Road to Masundong Barangay Road, Sitio Masundong, Mahaba, Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte. It connects the national highway (Daang Maharlika Highway) going to Surigao City, Butuan City and to major provinces, municipalities and other cities in Mindanao where major market centers and trading points are located. The road is already 80.31% completed and will soon benefit the 751 households living in the communities in the road influence area (RIA). 

One of the objectives of of this project is to boost the economic internal rate of return (EIRR) which is currently at 34.9%, and to provide easy flow and access of transportation for people, goods and services in order to raise their socio-economic standard of living and eventually contribute to the overall progress of the affected communities. 

Specifically, the FMR also aims to reduce average travel time from  40 minutes  to 20 minutes  in transporting farm produce; reduce travel cost from P2.00 per kilo to P1.00 in traversing the three barangays and adjacent communities to Cabadbaran City Proper; increase farm productivity and income; alleviate poverty in the Road Influence Area/Barangay; advance rural development and agricultural marketing opportunities; increase traffic count by 2.4% every five years; reduce average travel time from 60 minutes to 30 minutes; reduce post harvest-losses in transporting the products by 2%; reduce transportation and hauling cost from P100 to P80 (20%); and generate additional employment within the road influence area (110 skilled workers; 68 unskilled workers).

Despite the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, DA-PRDP continues to monitor its projects by coordinating with their Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCO’s) on the ground, and with the use of existing tools such as geotagging to validate the accuracy of the findings in the field. (Joy Montecalvo with reports from RPCO 13)