Villar sees 30% traffic improvement on EDSA

MANILA, Philippines — This year will be the turning point when traffic congestion along EDSA will finally be solved, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar said over the weekend.

Starting this year, Villar said traffic congestion rate on EDSA may improve by 20 to 30 percent, and 40 percent further by 2021.

He said the opening of vital infrastructure such as the Skyway Stage 3 project and the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC)’s NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 extension project this year would ease the traffic woes plaguing motorists and commuters along EDSA.

“That’s a one-two punch for 2020,” Villar said.

The Skyway Stage 3 project of San Miguel Corp. is expected to open by April. The Harbor Link R-10 Section is eyed for completion by March.

The Skyway Stage 3 project covers Buendia in Makati, San Juan, Manila, Quezon City, all the way to the North Luzon Expressway.

The Harbor Link R-10 Section is a 2.6-kilometer extension from C-3 Road in Caloocan to R-10 in Navotas City.

“We are projecting the Skyway Stage 3 to relieve EDSA of over 100,000 cars. Harbor Link will decongest the highway of 30,000 vehicles, most of which are trucks. Trucks are equivalent to almost five cars,” Villar said.

By next year, Villar said the MPTC’s NLEX Connector would be opened, which will further decongest EDSA of about 50,000 vehicles.

The P23.3-billion NLEX Connector road project is an eight-kilometer, all-elevated highway that would extend the NLEX southward from the end of Segment 10 along C-3/5th Avenue in Caloocan to PUP Sta. Mesa, Manila and connect to the Skyway Stage 3, mostly traversing the Philippine National Railway’s track.

Villar said the reconstruction of the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge or Rockwell Bridge is expected to be completed by 2021.

The bridge was closed to traffic on Jan. 19 last year.

“We also have the Santa Monica-Lawton or the Bonifacio Global City–Ortigas Link Bridge. So this is the plan to decongest EDSA,” Villar said.

He underscored the need to remove about 200,000 vehicles along EDSA to achieve a smooth flow of traffic. To date, at least 400,000 cars ply EDSA daily.

With the government’s infrastructure projects in full swing, Villar said it is possible to speed up travel along EDSA to 40 kilometers per hour.