Monday, June 1, 2020

P30-B CCLEx more than halfway complete

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter

THE P30-billion Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEx), one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects that is expected to ease the worsening traffic in Metro Cebu and help spur economic growth in the Visayas, is now more than halfway complete, its developer said.

“As of April 30, 2020, the overall Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway project stands at 56.86% while construction progress alone is at 42.04,” Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC) President and General-Manager Allan G. Alfon told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed reply to questions on May 29.

He added that only a skeleton workforce was fielded to undertake necessary work at certain portions of the 8.5-kilometer toll bridge project during the enhanced community quarantine period.

“As to the project’s timeline, we are reviewing the pandemic’s impact on the target date of completion. Rest assured that all the teams involved in the CCLEx project continue to work hard towards completing it next year. Projecting, however, the exact month in 2021 is a challenge considering the current conditions,” Mr. Alfon said.

The whole bridge was originally scheduled to open in the month of March, in time for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the country.

“With the transition to a more relaxed community quarantine, though, we can already accelerate work on the project’s different components,” Mr. Alfon added.

The toll bridge project, which is expected to benefit around 50,000 vehicles daily, will connect mainland Cebu in Cebu City to Mactan Island through Cordova, a coastal town in the province.

Build, Build, Build projects on track for 2020, 2021 completion

Despite the close to three-month layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several infrastructure projects under the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program are set to finish this year and the next.

According to Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and Projects Vivencio Dizon, the administration is also not shying away from big-ticket legacy projects and have several lined up already including the North-South Commuter Rail connecting Clark and Los Banos, as well as the Metro Manila Subway.

Set to finish this year are the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 which is now 76% complete and is expected to be delivered by December; and the Harbor Link connecting North Luzon Expressway to North Harbor is estimated to be completed by the end of the year; the 93%-complete Clark International Airport which is set to open by July; the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) East Extension by year end; and the Bonifacio Global City - Ortigas Center Link Road, which is 45% complete and will be delivered by December 2020 or early 2021.

“The ‘Build, Build, Build’, or unprecedented infrastructure program under the Duterte administration, is one of the key interventions that the government must do and must do swiftly in order to help us get out the mess that has been brought about by COVID-19,” said Dizon.

Next year, the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge and Binondo-Intramuros Bridge are on track to be completed by February.

 “By 2021, we are also going to complete two bridges across the Pasig. So there will be a total of three new bridges across the Pasig. This is the most number of bridges we did within one administration across the Pasig River and we are even envisioning to start five more bridges through an ODA (official development assistance) from China,” added Dizon.

Rail projects that will continue are the LRT-1 Cavite Extension and Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7), which will be partially operational by 2021; the MRT-3 Rehabilitation Program to be completed by July 2021; and the Philippine National Railways (PNR) Phase 1 connecting Tutuban, Manila to Malolos, Bulacan, which is targeted to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2021.

https://www.zigwheels.ph/car-news/build-build-build-projects-on-track-for-2020-2021-completion