The Feasibility of Covering the Drainage Canal along Roxas Avenue

To Prevent Accidents Caused by the Night Market

Reymond Jay Mesagrande1
James Antonio1
Markiene Morcilla1
1

Student, BS Architecture Program, College of Architecture and Fine Arts Education, University of Mindanao, Philippines.

ABSTRACT
The night market along the Roxas Avenue has been a cause of accidents by fast pasted
cars. The drainage canal located along street is a space which can be utilized, thats
why the researchers proposed to cover the canal and use the space for the night
market. Aside from covering the canal, the researchers also proposed for the canopy for
shelter, and fences with designated entrance and exit for safety.
Keywords: Roxas Avenue, Covered Canal, Night Market

INTRODUCTION
The M. Roxas Avenue, Named
after the 5th president of the Philippines,
stretches for about a kilometer right
through Metro Davao. With the constant
movement of people in and around the
avenue, its inevitable for the street to
become a commercial domain, and
recently the avenue became a place for
shopping and dining with the emerging of
the night market. Street vendors selling
different stuffs from clothing, toys, bags
and even food, gather together along
Roxas Avenue to showcase their
product. People from different walks of
life, from poor to rich or from students to
professionals would go there every night
and experience the flea market or
famously known as the night market. But
as the crowd increases the threat also
becomes inevitable.
Roxas Avenue is known by
Davaoeos as a very busy street when it

comes to the vehicles that pass by along

the avenue. Jeepneys coming from
farther part of Davao travels along this
high way, like the jeepneys from Toril,
Mintal, Calinan and many more, and
these jeepneys are traveling at a fast
pace, maximizing the allowable speed
that is 40 kilometers per hour to arrive at
their destinations as quickly as possible.
And therefore, there is a big risk to the
shoppers of the night market.

According to an ukay-ukay vendor

who wants his name to be undisclosed,
there are a lot of accidents that already
occurred in Roxas, especially on the
areas where there are intersections,
because cars coming from the streets
parallel to the avenue tend to be faster.
Most victims according to him are
children who are unsupervised by their
parents or guardians (Ukay-ukay
Vendor, 2015).
This is a study of the feasibility of
covering the drainage located throughout
the Roxas Avenue and converting it to a
usable space for people stay especially
during the evening when there is a night
market. This paper deals with the
possibility of reducing the accidents on
the area and making it more eye-pleasing
by hiding the drainage.
RESEARCH QUESTION
How
to
prevent
vehicular
accidents in Roxas Avenue when there is
a night market?
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The night market at the Roxas
Boulevard is a destination for the local
community and some visitor who wish to
enjoy the street style shopping and the

different kinds of street foods. The

current night market draws an average of
around one thousand people and is
expected to be less if it is raining. The
right market is an all-weather market and
is open for everyone.

However, the place is also known

to have a huge drainage canal located at
the middle of the street and its widely
open, and there is a foul smell that exists.
The street has also a valuable function as
a road access for specific vehicles at
morning and night time especially those
jeepneys coming from the farther parts of
Davao City like the jeepneys from Toril,
Calinan and many more. The wide open
drainage and the access road are a
problem for the customers who are
enjoying the food and also shopping.

The researchers proposed that

the wide canal be covered and be
converted into a space for displaying
ukay-ukay and as well as a space for
street foods. The researchers also
proposed rentable spaces on it with

canopies to be able have the night

market even if it is raining. The
researchers also proposed a fence in
each crossroads between the road and
the canal to avoid possible accidents
from vehicles.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This review of related literature will
be discussing about existing open canals
and drainage from different locations and
how they addressed their problem about
it. According to Beat Stauffer, a storm
water system with open channels for the
discharge of rainwater exists in most
urbanized areas. To avoid blockages and
unauthorized discharge of litter or
wastewater, open drains can be covered
by concrete slabs (Stauffer, n.d.). In his
study, he proposed that drainage and
canals be covered with concrete slabs to
prevent any unauthorized entry of any
wastewater or garbage that may clog the
drainage system.
In our country, covered canals are
also being utilized by some big cities like
Cebu City. An article from Cebu Daily
News on June 1, 2012, the Bids and
Awards Committee or BAC of Cebu City
posted an invitation to apply for eligibility
and to bid for concrete lined canal with
cover. There were three locations for the
canals, one is in Sitio Tambis, the other
one is in Sitio Kanaas, Singson
Compound, and the third is in Andres
Abellana, all three are situated in
Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City
(Abatayo, 2012).
In New Orleans, the Paris Avenue
canal is being covered between
Mirabeau and Hibernia to eliminate open
drainage ditch on one of the city's
important streets. This project resulted to

the Increase in drainage capacity of the

canal, it also eliminated danger hazard
and provided right of way for street
widening
and
beautification
(Photographs Arranged by Street
Names, n.d.).
An article posted on nola.com in
April 15, 2015 at 11:11 AM, Jefferson
Parish officials are considering to cover
the canals after two traffic wrecks killed
three people in one week. According to
the Councilwoman Cynthia Lee Seng,
the canal along Canal Street is always
seemed especially dangerous. A 32 year
old woman and her 6 year old daughter
were fatally injured when their sport utility
vehicle plunged into the Veterans canal
near Clearview Parkway. Four days
earlier, a motorist was found dead in his
pickup truck in the West Esplanade
Avenue canal near Hessmer Avenue in
Metairie. In 2003, six people died in two
canal wrecks on Airline Drive between St.
Rose and Norco (Myers, 2015)
In summary, this review of related
literature revealed that covering drainage
canals is very helpful because it will
make highways canals safer and less
prone to accidents.
METHODOLOGY
The researchers used descriptive
method in completing this study. The
researchers took different sources, from
books, periodicals and from internet
sources.
The
researchers
also
conducted interviews of the vendors who
are selling in the night market. The
researchers made an ocular inspection in
Roxas Avenue to see the problem in the
area.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The researchers solution to the

problem is divided into three parts, first is
for the covering of the drainage canal,
then adding canopy, and finally adding
fences. The researchers find this
necessary to apply the three part
development to address the safety
problem for the shoppers, the vendors
and also the motorists.

Covering the drainage canal is

necessary to address the lack of area for
both shoppers and vendors. The lanes
beside the canal is where the vendors
and there are located, then the shoppers
would crowd the whole place, some
people are also seen walking through the

outer lanes which is reserved for cars

passing by. Covering the canal enables
the people to stay away from the outer
street lanes and prevent accidents.
After covering the drainage canal,
adding canopies is the next step.
Canopies will help the vendors and
especially shoppers from any kinds of
weather; at day time, people can use it as
shelter from the heat of the Sun; and then
at times when there is rain people can
use it not to get wet. During rainy
evenings, there are usually low number
of people coming to the night market, but
since there are canopies already, people
will never be afraid to get wet because
they can now have shelter.

Putting fences around the covered

canal is the final step of the development.
The fences will prevent people from
going in and out of the covered canal
without proper entrance and exit, entry
and exit areas are placed significantly on
areas where people cannot crowd the
place. The fences will also prevent
children from running around the street
and will keep them away from accidents,
since children are the common victims of
vehicular accidents around the area
(Ukay-ukay Vendor, 2015).

We also divided the night market

into five different areas; area one for
massage, areas two, three and four for
ukay-ukay and food stalls and area for
mini park. We segregated these activities
so that people who goes to the night
market will have the idea where to go.
With this three part development
along Roxas Avenue, the space
consumed by the canal can be utilized,
there will be protection and shelter from
any weather, and accidents can be
prevented. With this development, it is
expected that people coming to the night
market may increase, and therefore
increasing the vendors profitability and
promote tourism also.
CONCLUSION

RECOMMENDATIONS

This study is for the purpose of

solving the problems around the Roxas
Avenue, further studies is recommended
from different researchers in order to
improve this study.

References
Abatayo, E. T. (2012, June 1). INVITATION TO
APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY & TO BID. Cebu
Daily News.
Myers, B. (2015, April 15). Drainage canal safety
eyed after Metairie wrecks kill 3 in a
week. Retrieved June 23, 2015, from
nola.com:
http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/
2015/04/jefferson_parish_eyeing_at_sa
f.html

Further development of the Roxas

Avenue is a must and shall be done as
soon as possible. In order to prevent
further accidents happening in the night
market, utilization of the space occupied
by the drainage canal is a must. And also
putting canopies for shelter and adding
fences to prevent anyone from walking
around the street will also be very helpful
to prevent any further accidents.

Photographs Arranged by Street Names. (n.d.).

Retrieved June 23, 2015, from New
Orleans Public Library:
http://www.neworleanspubliclibrary.or
g/photos/streets/paris.htm
Stauffer, B. (n.d.). Open Channels and Drains.
Retrieved June 23, 2015, from SSWM:
http://www.sswm.info/content/openchannels-and-drains
Ukay-ukay Vendor. (2015, June 23). (J. Antonio,
Interviewer)