METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) hopes to collect toll fees of from P85 to P300 for the 8.5-kilometer Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX)—a bridge that would connect Cordova to Cebu City that is currently under construction.
The fee would be P85 for class A vehicles, P160 for class B vehicles and P300 for huge trucks.
According to the Toll Regulatory Board of the Department of Transportation, class A or class 1 vehicles are those with two axles and have an overall height of up to 7.5 feet.
Class B vehicles are those with two axles and an overall height of more than 7.5 feet, including class A vehicles with trailers. Class C are trucks with three or more axles and a height greater than 7.5 feet.
The CCLEX is a P30 billion bridge project whose Cordova side starts in Barangay Pilipog. The bridge runs across the Mactan Channel and ends at the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR) in Cebu City.
Halfway done
Officials said the bridge is halfway done after the completion of the substructure of the main bridge’s two towers.
CCLEX is expected to handle 50,000 vehicles daily, said Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. president and general manager Allan Alfon in a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.
Aside from easing the traffic in the Marcelo Fernan Bridge and the first Mandaue-Mactan Bridge (officially the Sergio Osmeña Bridge), Cordova Mayor Mary Therese Sitoy-Cho said the CCLEX would accelerate growth in her town as it could facilitate trade activities.
She said the market value of the land in Cordova is now P5,000 per square meter, 10 times more than the previous value of P500 per square meter.
She hopes that by the time the third bridge opens for public use, the resolution to name it the “Señor Sto. Niño Bridge” would already be approved by Congress.
Completion date
COWI-DCCD project manager Robert Uthwatt said the project is eyed to be completed by the middle or third quarter of 2021. COWI-DCCD is the design consultancy firm behind the third bridge project.
For the celebration of the 500th year of Christianity in the country in 2021, Alfon said they would light eight crosses from the bridge’s four towers. He said these would be functional in time for the celebration in April next year.
Bridge design
CCLEX is designed for vehicles with speed of 80 kilometers per hour. It would have a navigational clearance or height of 51 meters, allowing large sea vessels to pass under the bridge. It would have two lanes in each direction.
Uthwatt said simultaneous activities at the project site are the concreting and construction of columns and piers for the bridge’s on-ramp and bored piling for the off-ramp alongside the CSCR.
Gabion placement and embankment works are also underway for the permanent causeway. Work on the precast yard is also ongoing, and castings of girders or beams have already started.
A total of 1,871 persons have been fielded for the project.
Extending expressway
Jose Ma. Lim, MPIC president and chief executive officer, said while CCLEX is under construction, they are also looking into prospects of extending the expressway in Mactan Island, possibly crossing all the way to Lapu-Lapu City.
“As you expand the network, the coverage of the road, the more impact it would have in terms of generating additional profit contributing to the improvement of mobility within the area. We also would like to look at the Cebu Island side on what other roads we can construct, to complement the CCLEX,” he said.
CCLEC is a subsidiary company of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the toll road arm of MPIC, a publicly listed infrastructure holding company. (WBS)