ROW delivery to speed up completion of C5 Link — MPTC

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. unit Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC) sees no problem in finishing the P12.65 billion Cavitex C5 Link Expressway project a year earlier from the original target as long as right of way can be delivered completely and issues be settled on time.

Construction of the 7.7-kilometer (km) expressway has been ordered to be fasttracked, with Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar hoping to see its completion by 2021.

“I am looking forward to the opening of the entire project in 2021,” Villar said yesterday during the opening of the first 2.2-km section of the Cavitex C5 Link Expressway, also known as Segment 3A-1.

Based on its presentations, CIC is originally eyeing to complete the entire expressway project by the second quarter of 2022.

“A lot of it really depends on the right of way. If DPWH and our partner from the government can actually deliver on the right of way, the completion of the project by end-2021 is doable,” CIC president Roberto Bontia said.

“Construction is exact science. Once we get the road, the equipment, the manpower, and the resources, we can build it. So it’s doable, but conditioned on the delivery of the right of way,” he said.

Bontia said CIC is ready to start construction of the next 2.1 km section or Segment 3A-2 from Merville to RSG Airport View Subdivision by November as right of way has been completely delivered.

The P1.5 billion segment is expected to be completed by April 2021.

“The more problematic segments would be Segment 3B, which is at the moment, still less than 30 percent right of way. And then Segment 2, we have about 69 percent right of way, but we have to relocate, or the NHA has to relocate roughly 1,800 families that are informal settlers,” Bontia said.

Segment 3B will be a 1.6-km expressway from RSG Airport View Subdivision to the Sucat Interchange. The section, which will cost P3.2 billion, is targeted to commence construction by April next year and be finished by March 2022.

Segment 2, meanwhile, will be 1.8-km expressway from Sucat Interchange to R-1 Expressway, crossing Sucat Road and Quirino Avenue. The segment will cost P6.2 billion and is also eyed to start construction by November, with completion eyed by April 2022.

Once completed, the Cavitex C5 Link Expressway will seamlessly connect C5 and Cavitex via Merville and Sucat.

Bontia expects the Cavitex C5 Link Expressway to be the choice thoroughfare for about 50,000 vehicles daily as customers experience the ease of traveling south of Metro Manila from Parañaque Toll Plaza to C5 in Taguig City in under 10 minutes.

The P1.6-billion Segement 3A-1 or C5 Link flyover was made accessible yesterday to vehicles plying between Fort Bonifacio, C.P. Garcia (C5), Taguig City, Parañaque City, Las Piñas City and Pasay City.

The alignment features the bridge that crosses Metro Manila Skyway (at-grade) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEx).

CIC said the C5 Link flyover is expected to reduce vehicular traffic in Sales interchange near Villamor Airbase and decongest SLEx East and West Service Roads and EDSA.

“This is a vital project that will cut travel time in half from the usual 1.5 hours spent to cross from Villamor Airbase, Pasay area to Taguig City. With three lanes in each direction of this flyover, passage of the anticipated 8,000 vehicles will be eased when they use the flyover,” Villar said.