By Lorenz S. Marasigan & Futch Anthony Inso | Correspondent
METRO Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is slated to break ground for the 8.25-kilometer Cebu-Cordova Bridge on Thursday, March 2, as it prepares for the facility’s construction this July.
No less than President Duterte is slated to lead the groundbreaking of the bridge spanning Cebu City to Cordova, Cebu.
Rodrigo E. Franco, MPTC president, said his group is ready for the groundbreaking, which will allow the tollway operator to fast-track certain requirements.
“The groundbreaking will help us with other requirements, which include permitting. We are now procuring a contractor and the company for the detailed engineering and design,” Franco said in the vernacular.
To fund the project, the company is in talks with Maybank Philippines Inc. for a loan facility to the tune of P15 billion.
“We are looking at closing it on the second quarter, but the final amount depends on the final design,” Franco said. Construction of the toll bridge will start by July, and is expected to be completed by 2020.
The project aims to decongest the traffic in the two existing bridges— Marcelo Fernan Bridge and Mandaue Bridge—between Mactan and Cebu, due to the worsening traffic condition in the area.
It includes the construction of the connections to Cebu City and Cordova, the main bridge structure, viaduct, causeway, roadway and toll facilities. It is located around 7.5 km south of the Mandaue Bridge and will take off from the Cebu South Coastal Road crossing the Mactan channel to Mactan Island.
The Cebu-Cordova Bridge is Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s first bridge project, and the first toll-related deal outside Metro Manila.
The tollroad company is the parent firm of Manila North Tollways Corp., the operator of the North Luzon, Subic-Clark-Tarlac, Manila-Cavite Toll and the future Cavite-Laguna expressways.
It also has significant interests in thoroughfares outside the Philippines, namely, in Thailand and Vietnam.
Cordova Mayor Mary Therese Sitoy Cho said the groundbreaking will take place in Pilipog, Cordova, where the bridge will stretch on almost 5- kilometer distance from Cebu City.
Documentation for the bridge construction has already been finalized, and engineers are now in the process of marking the site where the construction will start within this year.
Cho said that, instead of the earlier construction cost pegged at P17 billion, the third bridge will be realized on a budget amounting to P27 billion in a span of three to four years.
When the construction of the third bridge will come to fruition, Cho said, it will then take only a few minutes of travel to the Cebu airport, where at present, one has to hurdle heavy traffic, making a trip from Cebu City to the Cebu International Airport an ordeal.
Beside being an alternative route in going to the Cebu International Airport in Mactan, the municipality of Cordova will be comfortably accessible to tourists, as well as commuters, Cho said.
Since the bridge construction will be done under a public-private partnership, Cho said toll fees will have to be imposed on bridge users, Cho said.