The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of the Philippines announced that construction of three new bridges crossing Marikina River will commence by the second semester of 2022.
The Unified Project Management Office (UPMO) Bridges Management Cluster under the DPWH has been directed to start early procurement activities in 2022 for the bridges, which have a total span of 3,023.6 meters. They are the Marcos Highway-St. Mary Avenue Bridge, Homeowner’s Drive-A. Bonifacio Bridge and the Kabayani Street-Matandang Balara Bridge.
A loan agreement amounting PHP 8.8 billion (USD 170.9 million) between the Government of the Philippines and the Asian Development Bank was signed in December 2021 will ensure sufficient funding for the construction of the additional bridges which will provide alternate routes to decongest traffic, enhance transportation capacity of the Marikina River crossings, and accelerate the economic development of Marikina City and Quezon City.
The proposed bridges across Marikina River (together with the bridges completed in third quarter of 2021 crossing Pasig River, namely the locally-funded Kalayaan Bridge of the Bonifacio Global City-Ortigas Center Link Road Project and the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge funded by a grant from China, as well as the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge to be completed in 2022 also financed by the grant aid program of China) are included in the government’s flagship infrastructure projects under the Metro Manila Logistics Network Program.
(Source: BusinessWorld; DPWH)