Nearing completion of the electrical works of the underground cabling activities at San Pedro St., Davao Light targets R. Magsaysay Ave. in Davao City to be wire-free next.

The first part of the underground cabling project in R. Magsaysay covers the Philippine Post Office up to the corner of Suazo Street. Additionally, the civil works of Davao Light are now 23.5% complete. Civil works include the excavation and installation of conduits and manholes to lay the pipes where the primary lines will go through.

With the innovation of Davao Light engineers, the manholes that originally took 4-6 weeks to be constructed and installed at the site, will now only take 48 hours using prefabricated manholes. The innovation aims to lessen the timeframe of the closure of roads due to construction.

“The prefabricated manhole is Davao Light’s innovation to minimize public inconvenience and [the cost and timeframe] of the project implementation. We construct the manhole, where the primary lines will go through, in a separate, controlled area and then deliver them to the site for construction to make the process considerably faster,” Engr. Leo Remulta, the project lead of Davao Light for the R. Magsaysay Avenue area, said in an interview.

The civil works on the first part of the R. Magsaysay area are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2023. After that, the electrical works will commence and are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2024.

Davao Light thanks the public for their understanding regarding the inconvenience experienced during the construction.

“We thank everyone for their continued support and understanding while we conduct our underground cabling activities at night to mitigate the possible heavy traffic in the area,” Engr. Chad Ramos, Head of Davao Light Power Systems Design Department (PSDD), said.

The underground cabling plan of the City Government of Davao under City Ordinance No. 0152-17, Series of 2017 mandates all telecommunication companies and Davao Light to convert overhead lines to an underground system. The completion of the project hopes to make the city more attractive to investors and tourists as only a few cities are implementing the underground cabling project in the Philippines.