DPWH sets meeting with Calax bidders on road alignment issue

MANILA, Philippines -The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is set to meet today with the four prequalified bidders of the P35.4 billion Cavite - Laguna expressway to discuss the proposed changes in the alignment of the public private partnership (PPP) project.

In a notice to all the pre-qualified bidders, DPWH said it would hold a meeting today to discuss the alignment issues of the 47-kilometer closed-system tolled expressway that would connect the South Luzon expressway (SLEX) and the Manila Cavite Tollroad expressway (Cavitex).

“There will be a meeting to discuss the alignment issues on Monday. Representatives for each bidder are limited to five,” the DPWH said.

The DPWH earlier issued Supplemental Bid Bulletin 14 to inform prequalified bidders that the horizontal alignment of the proposed toll road particularly in Kawit, Silang, and Amaia has been revised.

The agency decided to revise the alignment in Kawit by moving the ramp to avoid constructing two adjacent road entry for the existing expressway as well as the proposed toll road.

Likewise, DPWH also made realignments in the exit and entry point in Silang as well as in Amaia to lessen the impact of the right of way acquisition.

The DPWH prequalified all four groups including the Ayala-led Team “Orion”, MPCALA Holdings Inc. of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), and Malaysia ‘s Alloy MTD Philippines.

The agency has deferred anew the submission of bids for the PPP project to June 2 instead of May 21 to give bidders enough time to prepare their documents with the changes in the instruction to bidders.

This was the third time the deadline has been postponed from the original dates of Jan. 20 to April 21, then to May 21, and finally to June 2.

Major revision to the guidelines requires bidders to submit a bid in the form of the viability gap funding (VGP) or subsidy not to exceed P5 billion or the bid that would be paid to the government as concession payment.

This was in sharp contrast to the original guidelines wherein the basis of the bid was the toll fee per kilometer for Class 1 vehicles in 2018.

In case of bids in the form of concession payments the agency said it would not impose a ceiling to the amount to be submitted by the bidders.

Under the revised guidelines of the DPWH, bidders who would offer a premium instead of asking for a subsidy would likely win the PPP project as the Aquino government is doing everything it could to avoid paying subsidy for major infrastructure projects to generate much needed savings.

The four-lane expressway starting from the Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna would have a concession period 35 years including design and construction of four years.

This is the third PPP expressway project of the DPWH bid out under the Aquino Administration. The first was the P2-billion Daang Hari-SLEX link project scheduled for completion by June next year while the second is the ongoing P15.5-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) expressway project.