Now about that 3rd Mactan Bridge
It is wonderful to hear that in three years we shall see a 3rd bridge spanning the Cebu Mactan channel. That is if we accept the word of Mayor Adelino Sitoy of Cordova, hook, line and sinker. I am even happy that this supposedly joint venture with Cordova and, of course, the City of Cebu would be with the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., which has an excellent track record in road projects in Metro Manila.
However I am a realist. First of all, we Cebuanos are entitled to see the plans for this 3rd bridge so we can help scrutinize it. So far, people have presented us the study done by the University of San Carlos students, which is a mere concept. What we would like to see is where will this bridge start from the side of Cebu City and where it would land in Cordova? Surely this is not too much to ask from the planners of the bridge?
But what really is the score here? Perhaps more importantly, even if this is a Private-Public Partnership it still has to be bid out to interested parties, unless what the MPTC is proposing is a Swiss challenge? Surely Mayor Sitoy is not telling us that there will be no public bidding on this new bridge? More importantly, what about the officials of the City of Cebu, what are their plans and programs when it comes to the 3rd bridge? Are the folks behind Team Rama and the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan solidly behind this proposal or do they have their own respective ideas on this project?
Finally, regarding the three-year time frame, I do not think that even if they start this bridge project next year, I doubt if they can finish building this bridge in just three years. Perhaps the planning will take three years alone. Come on folks, we are talking about land acquisition on both sides of Cordova and Cebu City and I can only second guess that it is easier to acquire land in Cordova, after all, most of it is under water. But what about the roadway that would lead all the way to the Mactan Cebu International Airport? That alone is a nightmare by DPWH!
Then there is always the problem of getting land within Cebu city. As I have pointed out already, for as long as we do not know where the bridge would land in Cebu City, we will not have a way of knowing what kind of road-right-of-way acquisition we will be dealing with. Again I would like to remind you that for the M. Velez St. road widening project, it has already taken the Department of Public Works and Highways nine-years since I asked them (when I was CITOM Chief) to widen that road.
In fact I passed there last Sunday and finally this road is now on its final stages of completion - cementing the areas where squatters used to be. This road will be so wide; I do not think this will be the source of traffic clogging when it is done. But it still took a very long time for DPWH to complete this road. The same thing happened on Escario St., which in my book was badly done by DPWH if you looked at it from the point of being done symmetrically. It just does not match the width on both ends of Escario St.
I do not blame Mayor Sitoy for being so excited about the 3rd bridge project that is passing through his municipality of Cordova because it would certainly hasten the development of this town, which is difficult to access from Cebu City. With this we can predict a better future for Cordova.
Mind you, this has always been our plan during my stint as Chairman of the Regional Development Council's Infrastructure Development Committee and it was pointless to put the 3rd bridge to link up from the Mandaue side because all traffic to Mactan passes by Mandaue right now. The only way to reduce traffic going to Mactan via Mandaue is to put the 3rd Mactan Bridge in Cebu City which is across Cordova and I will be extremely happy that this development will be pushing through.
At this point let me tell you that there are many ways to connect the 3rd bridge from Cordova to Cebu City. I was recently in New York City and they have all sorts of bridges spanning the East River. One example is a drawbridge, which can open when vessels would pass the channel. This type is good for us for the simple reason that there will not be a huge right-of-way acquisition, as it does not take up much space if we are coming from a major thoroughfare. That means that the problem of RROW would be focused on the road from Cordova to Mactan International Airport.
Another type of bridge that does not need huge RROW acquisition is a bridge that spirals up and down, like the Queens Borough Bridge in New York City. This is very much like when you bring your car inside SM City where you spiral up to the parking lot. Of course, it is a much wider spiral to bring your vehicle up to the bridge, which should be high enough to allow huge vessels to clear the bridge. So what kind of bridge are we getting?
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