The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the country’s largest business organization, has backed the elevated expressway project that will ease port congestion at the Port of Manila and help spare consumers, exporters and importers from the high cost of delivery.
PCCI president Alfredo Yao told the Toll Regulatory Board the proposed expressway would give 24/7 access to trucks and other vehicles traveling along the stretch of North Boulevard and R-10 to the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project.
The proposal, a Public-Private Partnership project, is being built by Indonesia’s Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada and state-run Philippine National Construction Corp. in partnership with conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
When completed, the Skyway Stage 3 project will link the North and South Luzon expressways from Buendia Avenue in Makati to Balintawak in Caloocan City.
“Our membership is concerned over the repeat of the port congestion last 2014 resulting in business losses amounting to P70 billion if no new road infrastructures are put in place in the medium term,” Yao said in a letter to TRB dated June 2015.
He said the group saw port congestion as part of of the real problem of road congestion.
Yao noted that almost half of the number of delivery trucks from the Port of Manila would drive up to the proposed elevated link to Stage 3 and benefit from the reduced travel time to their destinations outside Metro Manila.
“Continuity of business is key to PCCI. By accelerating the movement of raw materials and finished goods to and from the ports, we are certain that this proposed project would increase productivity and propel the growth of our economy,” he said.
Traffic volumes in the streets of Metro Manila even during non-truck ban hours would also be cut by almost half, he added.
He said the worsening traffic in Metro Manila cost the economy P140 billion annually as estimated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency as of 2013.
The PCCI wants the Toll Regulatory Board to approve early the implementation of the elevated expressway project.
D.M. Construction Inc. of the Consunji family and EEI Corp. of the Yuchengco Group have bagged the contracts to build the P26-billion Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project.
DM Construction would be the contractor for second segment of the project from Buendia Ave. to Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City worth over P17 billion.
EEI said it recently signed a contract with Citra Central Expressway to construct Sections 3 and 4 of the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 Project.
Section 3 covers a 2.7-kilometer section from Aurora Blvd. to Quezon Ave., while Section 4 spans a 4.8-kilometer section from Quezon Ave. to Balintawak.
The elevated expressway project covers 14.82 kilometers from Buendia to Balintawak.
It will link the South and North Luzon Expressways through eight strategic interchanges located in Buendia, President Quirino Avenue, Plaza Dilao and Nagtahan, Aurora Boulevard, E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Sgt. Rivera and Balintawak.
Citra began work on the first segment of the project, which covers the Manila to Makati stretch in the first quarter of 2014.
The first stage of the Skyway System consists of a 9.5-kilometer elevated road from Bicutan, Parañaque City to Makati, as well as the rehabilitation of the 13.5-kilometer section of the SLEX from Alabang to Magallanes.
Skyway Stage 2, meanwhile, is a 6.88-kilometer elevated expressway from Bicutan to Alabang.