It appears that the government’s ambitious infrastructure program is showing no sign of slowing down at all. Last week, the media reported another big project about building bridges that will connect all the major islands that will cost P269 billion. The intention is to connect Luzon and Samar, Leyte and Mindanao plus the other major islands of the Visayas region. The length of the bridges will total about 105 kilometers —a major challenge to the engineering know-how of Filipinos.
With this kind of undertaking, one wonders whether the amount budgeted will be enough. Nothing was mentioned whether this undertaking will be a combination of tunnels and bridges. We also do not know if bridging the San Bernardino Strait that will connect Samar and Luzon is at all possible. The water current there is strong, treacherous and deep. The government should examine whether tunnelling is the better option.
The big problem with this huge project is always the cost which might drain our treasury given the P9 trillion cost of the other Build, Build, Build projects. Add the cost of the projected 2,000-kilometer Mindanao rail project of about P450 billion and we have to wonder where the government will get the money. Maybe China? After all, the lovefest between our President and Chinese President Xi is growing with the latter scheduled to in November.
Before we undertake a project of this magnitude, it might be a good idea to study how others did it. When Japan connected the island of Hokkaido and Honshu through an underground tunnel, now known as the Saikan rail tunnel, the cost when it was completed in 1988 was $7 billion—a staggering amount at that time. The plan to connect the islands was first mentioned between 1921 and 1925 but surveys were only started in 1946 and work started much later in 1971. It took 16 years to complete the project and is currently the longest tunnel with an undersea segment totaling 53.85 km with 23.30 km under the seabed.
The other example of a project of this magnitude is the Channel rail tunnel first proposed in 1802 that connects Folkestone, Kent in the UK and Coquilles, Pas-de-Calais which has a distance of 50.45 km. The cost of the project eventually ballooned to about $21 billion. Taking the costs of both these projects and the time it took to complete them, it is obvious that many of us elderly folks will not live long enough to see these projects completed and the costs as currently estimated will undoubtedly balloon to a much higher amount due to inflation and cost overruns.
Still, if the government can do it, the project will benefit the country immensely.
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Last week, the papers also came out with a report that the Department of Transportation construct an integrated bus terminal in Bocaue, Bulacan that will, if the plan materializes, take out about 6,000 provincial buses off the congested roads of Metro Manila. The idea is to prevent buses coming from provinces north of the National Capital Region from entering the Metro Area through Balintawak and other entrances.
The facility will be constructed beside the Philippine Arena, just off the North Luzon Expressway. It is noteworthy to note that every time there is an activity in the Philippine Arena, traffic along NLEX gets congested. With the so-called integrated bus terminal beside it, traffic congestion in the area will now become a daily problem.
We have to wonder therefore, why the place was chosen at all. There must be other important reasons. With the terminal, the DOTr expects to decongest Edsa by eliminating about 97,000 trips because most of the provincial bus stations are located there.
I have some problems about the plan as published in the media. Although the bus terminal is integrated as reported, why locate the facility beside the Philippine Arena. Is there going to be a rail head there? If there is none, the terminal could not be classified as intermodal because an intermodal station means that when all the bus passengers are discharged, these passengers will then take the train to proceed to their find destination which is the NCR.
If, however, the passengers will be picked up by land-based transportation such as buses or jeepneys, the terminal will not be intermodal but just another bus terminal. Integrated, maybe, because all the bus companies will be using one facility but intermodal it will not be. As I understand it, the railway that will go to Clark which is intended to pick up all passengers will be located at the opposite side of the Philippine Arena. It is really very simple, if there is no rail head collocated in the integrated bus terminal, the same number of road-based transport will be needed to bring the passengers to their final destination in the metro area thereby negating the very purpose of the project.
Furthermore, what will the provincial buses do after discharging their passengers? Will these buses be allowed to proceed to the NCR where the bus companies still have their stations and maintenance facilities or will these facilities also be move out of the NCR and transferred to Bocaue, Bulacan? If so, the government will have to conduct a survey whether these facilities can be accommodated in and around Bocaue which in itself will necessitate additional investments.
If however, there will be a rail head where the integrated bus terminal will be constructed, then the bus terminal will indeed help decongest the roads of Metro Manila, most notably Edsa.