The Department of Transportation said Monday the construction for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension Project started on Sept. 1.
“Following completion of ground investigation and foundation design works, the Light Rail Manila Corp. has started piling works from Dr. Santos Station in Parañaque, where right-of-way has been cleared,” the DOTr said.
Piling works involve the construction of supporting piers that will serve as the foundation for the elevated railway structures.
Phase 1 covers 7 kilometers of the 11-kilometer LRT-1 Cavite Extension, including the Redemptorist Station, MIA Station, Asiaworld Station, Ninoy Aquino Station and Dr. Santos Station.
Asiaworld Station will be located parallel to and right beside the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange and will eventually be connected to the Metro Manila Subway, forming the Parañaque Common Station. These are stations where ROW is already free and clear.
Requiring a total of 203 piers, construction of the first 67 piers started on Septe. 1 from Dr. Santos Station to Ninoy Aquino Station. Forty piers from Ninoy Aquino Station to Asiaworld Station and 22 piers from Redemptorist Station to the existing LRT-1 Baclaran Station will begin construction in November 2019, while 74 piers from Asiaworld Station to Redemptiorist Station will begin construction in March 2020.
The department said that to speed up construction, piling works would be done simultaneously in up to five different areas where ROW is made available.
It said the remaining ROW obstructions would be cleared under Package 1 including auxiliary facilities with the assistance of Parañaque City such as traffic lights, plant boxes and drainage lines as well as utility lines of Manila Electric Co., Maynilad, PLDT Inc., Globe Telecom, Eastern Telecommunications, SkyCable, Radius Telecoms and Cablelink.
The agency said the partial operability section of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project was expected to start by the fourth quarter of 2021. Measures would be taken for the rest of the line to Niog, Bacoor to make it fully operational by 2022.
The project is expected to increase LRT-1’s ridership from 500,000 to 800,000 a day and reduce travel time between Baclaran and Bacoor, Cavite from 1 to 2 hours to only 25 minutes.
LRMC won the bidding for the 11.7-kilometer Cavite extension project and took over the operation of LRT Line 1 on Sept. 12, 2015.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., through Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., owns 55 percent of LRMC, while AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. has a 35-percent stake and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Inc. holds the balance.