The zipper lane along Commonwealth Avenue, currently undergoing dry-run by the Quezon City local government, with MMDA and MRT-7 contractor EEI, will resume tomorrow from 6AM to 11AM, with modifications.

According to Assistant Quezon City Administrator Alberto Kimpo, the dry-run is meant to study the zipper lane or counter-flow scheme, and the diversion method to be used to alleviate the heavy weekday morning rush hour traffic along Commonwealth Avenue. This is caused by the MRT-7 construction along the Quezon Memorial Circle Elliptical Road-North Avenue interchange, which is being extended by EEI for another two months until February 27, 2021.

The dry-run for the proposed zipper lane will be reopened at 6AM tomorrow, with two entrances, one at the Luzon Avenue-Tandang Sora Avenue area, and a second in front of UP-Ayala Technohub. The zipper lane will end at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue eastbound and University Avenue leading to the University of the Philippines – Diliman.

“Tomorrow, a stop-and-go traffic management scheme will be implemented whereby vehicles on Commonwealth Avenue eastbound will be stopped while those on the zipper lane turn left into University Avenue. This will then be followed by vehicles on Commonwealth Avenue being allowed to proceed while those on the zipper lane are stopped, and so on,” explained Kimpo.

A road diversion scheme was tested in the morning of December 31st, Thursday, wherein all vehicles were diverted to University Avenue, and those traveling Commonwealth eastbound had to make a U-turn at the University Avenue-C.P. Garcia interchange, before proceeding back to Commonwealth.

“We will compare the results of the dry-run for both schemes: zipper lane with Road Diversion and zipper lane with stop-and-go, and make the appropriate recommendation to the MMDA. What’s important here is that following the explicit instructions of Mayor Belmonte, we have to get the right scheme in place come Monday morning,” Kimpo said.

Kimpo added that this zipper lane initiative is meant to give an alternative route to motorists. “Instead of crawling through traffic along Commonwealth westbound, entering Elliptical Road, all the way to North Avenue, motorists can use the zipper lane and proceed to C.P. Garcia Avenue via University Avenue, and proceed from there to Katipunan-C5, or Kalayaan Avenue via Maginhawa Street, or East Avenue, or Quezon Avenue. They can therefore by-pass the heavy traffic on Commonwealth westbound and Elliptical.”

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