TACLOBAN CITY -- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar will inaugurate next week a newly-widened bridge that forms part of the nautical highway that connects this city to Luzon and Mindanao.

The DPWH started the PHP83.94 million project in 2015 and was completed early this year. The public works chief will inaugurate the Tigbao Bridge as one of the highlights of his visit to the city on Aug. 7.

“This has been a priority project of the DPWH to complement road widening activities of primary national highways,” said Edgar Tabacon, director of DPWH Eastern Visayas on Tuesday.

The bridge works involves retrofitting and strengthening of the 48-meter structure and converting the bridge from two lanes to four lanes.

Tabacon said this is the first rehabilitation project of the bridge since it was built in 1970s. The bridge deteriorated after decades of daily use by motorists heading to the southern and northern part of the country.

“Its direct beneficiaries are poor individuals from Leyte, Southern Leyte, and Biliran provinces who need to go to the new Eastern Visayas Regional Medical in the northern part of the city,” said the official in a mobile interview.

It will also link the Tacloban City By-Pass Road designed to decongest traffic along the Maharlika Highway and connect to the future international seaport in Babatngon, Leyte.

The newly-widened bridge is within the Pan-Philippine Highway, also known as the Maharlika Highway, a 3,517 kilometers network of roads, bridges, and ferry services that connect the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. (PNA)