Southbound motorists will soon face heavy traffic on the South Luzon Expressway, where northbound cars have been caught in gridlock due to the ongoing Skyway extension project, its manager said Friday.
Skyway O&M Corporation earlier this week started installing posts in the northbound lane for the five-kilometer Skyway extension that will eliminate the need for motorists to pass the Alabang viaduct, a perennial traffic choke point.
On Thursday, motorists and passengers suffered the brunt of the traffic congestion along the South Luzon Expressway for the second day, with the line of vehicles extending for almost 24 kilometers from Alabang to the Eton exit in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
Commuters were forced to report for work or school late, and many of them missed appointments or flights.
The cause was the indefinite closure of Skyway at-grade’s outermost lane right after the Alabang Viaduct in Muntinlupa City amid the construction of pylons for the six-km extension of the Skyway from
Barangay Cupang to Susana Heights.
Construction in the southbound lane will start “in the near future”, said SOMCO president Manuel Bonoan.
“Once we start putting pieces and posts for the southbound extension, we will also eventually experience a disturbance there.”
Traffic on SLEX remained light on the southbound lane and heavy on the northbound lane from the Alabang viaduct to the Carmona rail road
around 10 a.m. Friday, operator Manila Toll Expressway Systems said on Twitter.
To ease the northbound traffic jams, a counter-flow scheme is being implemented during certain hours while SOMCO deployed additional ground personnel and ambulant tellers, Bonoan said.
SOMCO aims to complete the Skyway extension by December 2020.
“We are asking for a bit of patience. We hope we can work together on this, bear it a little. At the end of the day, as they say, no pain, no gain.”