The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) began implementing the road expansion project on UPLB’s arterial roads, Victoria M. Ela Avenue and Jose M. Velasco Avenue last May.
The expansion project complements the UPLB Green Mobility Initiative (UPLB GMI) and is anticipated to promote active mobility in the campus.
UPLB GMI launched the Tipaklong Mobility Sharing Project last June. It makes available a fleet of e-bikes, manual bikes, and e-scooters that UPLB constituents and visitors can rent using a mobile app.
With this infrastructure project, DPWH coordinated with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and applied for the balling and cutting of several trees that stood on Ela Avenue.
The DENR deployed a technical team that inspected the trees and the area and recommended the approval of their cutting or balling, as the case may be.
Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs Roberto Cereno also revealed that the trees were no longer in good condition as evidenced by the decayed trunk. “Tree balling and transplanting could have been the option if the trees were found healthy,” he added.
Among the trees that were cut were narra trees which have been structurally compromised due to heart rot, four termite-infested African oil palms, a tabebuia, which is an exotic and non-native species, two Indian trees, a mango, and a caimito tree .
The banaba trees, being smaller and in a healthy state, were balled and replanted on the side of the expanded road.
Dr. Alona Linatoc, an associate professor at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources, said that trees infected with center rot or heart rot may look healthy on the outside despite being already structurally weak; and may fall without warning.“It is an asymptomatic infection, which means the tree looks healthy despite its center being rotten,” she said.
The 2-lane Ela and Velasco Avenues will become a 6-lane thoroughfare at the end of this project. The outer lanes will be designated as bike lanes and pedestrian pathways.
This project is a continuation of previous road improvements led by the DPWH.
Vice Chancellor Cereno further explained that UPLB will continue to support the national road improvement project which aims to widen all major thoroughfares and arterial roads into four lanes.
On the UPLB campus, these include IPB road, Pili Drive, Jose R. Velasco Avenue, and Victoria M. Ela Avenue. As arterial roads, these connect UPLB and the towns and barangays adjacent to it to the Manila South Road.