Major contractors from the country and around the world expressed interest in joining the open competitive bidding for various stages of implementation of the inter-island bridge project that would connect Bataan and Cavite provinces over Manila Bay.
The contractors attended the recent Town Hall Meeting for the Bataan – Cavite Interlink Bridge (BCIB) Project organized by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
BCIB is envisioned as a 32.15-kilometer bridge that will cut travel time between Bataan and Cavite from the 5 hours to just 45 minutes.
It is estimated to cost $3.91 billion (about P219.31 billion). Of the amount, $2.11 billion (about P118.32 billion) will be financed by the ADB while $1.14 billion (about P63.71 billion) is proposed to be co-financed by the AIIB. The remaining $664.23 million (about P37.28 billion) will be funded by the government.
Officials of the DPWH, together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) hosted on March 26, 2024 the contractors outreach program for the BCIB Project.
DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil Sadain led the event at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City. It served as a pilot of the department’s series of Bagong Pilipinas townhall meetings in line with the instruction of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Secretary Manuel Bonoan and other Cabinet members to champion the administration’s brand of governance and leadership.
“Through this outreach initiative, we hope to further connect and promote information sharing with prospective local and foreign contractors of the upcoming BCIB Project which will be one of the world’s longest marine bridges, and strengthen partnerships in the construction industry,” said Sadain.
Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin, Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines Dato’ Abdul Malik Melvin Castelino, ADB country director Pavit Ramachadran and country specialist Alain Morel, DPWH Undersecretaries Eric Ayapana and Ador Canlas and project director Sharif Madsmo Hasim and project manager Teresita Bauzon attended the event.
Also joining the event are commercial specialist Bebe Montesines of the US Embassy in the Philippines, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) director Sheryl Mund; and DPWH officials.
Experts from T.Y. Lin International working on the project’s final detailed engineering design led by its project manager/team leader and company senior vice president Marwan Nader led the discussion.
The construction of the project will be divided into seven contract packages with the DPWH identifying initial on-land packages, including the 5-km. Bataan Land Approach under Package 1 and the 1.35-km. Cavite Land Approach under Package 2.
Other packages are the 20.65-km. Marine Viaducts in the North and South under Packages 3 and 4; and 2.15-km. North Channel Bridge for Package 5 and 3.15-kilometer South Channel Bridge for Package 6. The 7th package involves project-wide ancillary works with an eventual separate package 8 for the operations and maintenance.