LRT-1 extension nears ROW completion

MANILA, Philippines — Over 90 percent of the right-of-way (ROW) for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1)  Cavite extension has been delivered by the government to date, giving its private operator high hopes of completing the project on schedule.

“We have over about 90 plus percent of the right-of-way solved and we’re confident that as we build the system the right-of-way will be delivered on time. We actually started two months ahead of schedule so we hope that we are able to continue the pace,” Light Rail ManilaCorp. (LRMC) president and CEO Juan Alfonso said.

Alfonso said LRMC is optimistic that it would not take long for the government, through the Department of Transportation (DOTr), to clear the remaining right-of-way for the project. 

“So far so good, but there are several activities left. There are utilities relocation and then there are some areas where we have to coordinate with the utilities so it’s a whole coordination,” he said.

Groundbreaking of the LRT-1 Cavite extension project was held in May 2017, but actual construction took two years to start mostly due to issues in resolving the right of way acquisition.

LRMC has started last month piling works for the project in areas where right-of-way have been cleared.

Piling works involve the construction of supporting piers that will serve as the foundation for the elevated railway structures. 

“We’re full speed ahead. We’re piling the column foundations and we’re building new columns almost every two days so we have almost 200 columns to build in the Cavite extension and that’s continuing,” Alfonso said.

Phase 1 will cover seven kilometers of the 11-kilometer LRT-1 Cavite extension, including the Redemptorist Station, MIA Station, Asiaworld Station, Ninoy Aquino Station, and Dr. Santos Station.

The partial operability section of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension project is targeted to start in the fourth quarter of 2021, with measures being taken for the rest of the line to Niog, Bacoor to be operational by 2022.

The project is expected to increase LRT-1’s ridership from 500,000 to 800,000 each day, and reduce travel time between Baclaran and Bacoor, Cavite from one to two hours to only 25 minutes.

LRMC, a consortium is composed of Metro Pacific Investment Corp.’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd., was awarded the public-private partnership project to operate, maintain, and extend the LRT-1 in 2014 and has also won the contract for the LRT-Cavite extension project.