Iris Gonzales | The Philippine Star | October 21, 2019
As of September
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The consortium building the P25-billion Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) has made significant headway in completing the toll bridge, reporting a 47 percent completion rate as of end-September.
The Cebu Link Joint Venture is the consortium behind the flagship project that would connect Cebu City to Cordova town on Mactan Island.
It is comprised of Spain-based Acciona Construccion S. A., Lopez-owned First Balfour Inc. and D. M. Consunji Inc., a subsidiary of the Consunji-owned conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc.
The powerhouse consortium of infrastructure giants has invested 5.3 million man-hours to build 47 percent of the iconic bridge which is expected to ease the worsening traffic in the province of Cebu.
In a press briefing held here, DMCI president and CEO Jorge Consunji said the company is proud to be part of the project.
“The design, scale and complexity of this project makes it an engineering and construction marvel. We are proud to be part of this iconic project,” he said.
On the sidelines of a visit to the project site, Consunji explained the project is complicated because of the length of the bridge and the massive scale.
At the end of September, the consortium had a total workforce of 1,846 direct and indirect hires.
The group expects to employ more local workers as the project hits its peak in the coming months.
With a length of 8.25 kilometers, the infrastructure will be the longest bridge connecting two islands in the Philippines.
The main bridge will span 390 meters and will have a navigational clearance of 51 meters to allow large vessels to pass underneath, officials also said during the briefing.
A unique feature is a lighted cross on top of the two 145-meter high plyons.
Concrete piling for the two towers of the main bridge was completed in May, while the lower pylons are nearing completion.
The piling works for the Cebu viaduct, on the other hand, are almost complete while Cordova viaducts were finished last month.
Construction of the ramps that will connect CCLEX to the Cebu South Coastal Road is already ongoing.
The consortium is targeting to complete the toll bridge in 2021, in time for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines.
The bridge is expected to serve at least 40,000 vehicles daily and will give Cordova direct access to Cebu City, decongesting the traffic in the two existing bridges between Mactan and Cebu.
The proponent of the project is Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation (CCLEC), which issued the notice of award to the consortium in 2017 at an agreed contract amount of P22.6 billion.
The expressway marks the first of MPIC’s toll road expansion projects in Visayas and Mindanao.
CCLEC will build, operate and maintain the toll bridge through a joint venture agreement with the local governments of Cebu City and Cordova municipality.