2016, August

Motorists can heave a sigh of relief for now. The planned retrofitting of Gilbert Bridge has been reset. The original schedule was August 10 but after a meeting between officials from the Dept. of Public Works and Highways, the contractor Viking Construction and Supply (VCS) and the engineering offices of the Laoag and Ilocos Norte governments, it was decided that the schedule be deferred. No definite date, however, was decided. The original plan was for the retrofitting for the deck slab of the bridge to start on August 10, 2016; with one lane expected to be completed by October 10, 2016. The retrofitting on the other lane was supposed to start on October 7, 2016 up to December 2, 2016. The VCS report recommended the fix the bridge girdle—or the deck slab of the bridge—to avoid occurrence of cracks. This would be addressed by putting carbon fiber plates. To ease traffic congestion of the bridge repair, VCS proposed a new method: closing one side of the bridge from 7 pm to 3 am for the retrofitting.