SCUTTLEBUTT

EDSA rehab in 3 months?

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month suspended the start of the EDSA Rebuild project until the end of June.

The postponement was to seek a better plan that would significantly shorten the rehabilitation period from two years to six months to reduce the disruption to motorists and the economy.

Canada-based AnyWay Solutions said it could further shorten the schedule and complete the project in three months.

It said a faster, more focused turnaround time would require detailed information about the condition of the pavement to optimize where and what type of rehabilitation is needed, since parts of EDSA do not require rebuilding but only rehab.

The technology-heavy firm said a targeted approach would decrease costs, yield faster results, and cause less disruption to traffic.

The company basically uses remote sensing satellites to rapidly assess, with high-accuracy, the extent of pavement distress and identify the sections that need a full rehab.

AnyWay said it collects, processes, and provides detailed insights on projects, enabling more accurate, targeted, and faster decision-making through the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), a method that utilizes laser light to measure distances to the earth.

It proposes creating a detailed rehabilitation strategy that optimizes the types of inputs, minimizes traffic disruption, and accelerates project implementation time.

The entire project will be completed in three months, without needing to entirely close EDSA as originally planned, and at a cost of less than P18 billion