WORKERS OF A MAINLAND CONTRACTOR lay rebars on the river bed of the Gogon river in Virac as part of the P100-million flood control project of the DPWH regional office, which is implementing the supposedly local project of the DPWH Catanduanes District Engineering Office. Work on the river bed intends to install two groundsills, at this area and one more at the section of the river inside the VTC compound. A groundsill is threshold structure built across a river as one alternative in reducing the upstream water velocity and preventing scouring of river structures. A DPWH source told the Tribune that the DPWH regional office decided to construct the groundsills after the additional work on the existing dikes did not add up to the contract cost, forcing planners to resort to the installation of groundsills. A suggestion to include a tributary of the Gogon river in the P100-million project was reportedly brushed aside by the office of Regional Director Virgilio Eduarte, which has been implementing over P3 billion worth of projects originally with the DPWH Catanduanes district office.
