AFTER several delays, the first skyway in the Visayas and Mindanao region, the Lapu-Lapu Expressway (LLEX), will soon take a step closer to fruition.
In an interview with SunStar Cebu’s online news program ‘Beyond the Headlines’ on Thursday, May 16, 2024, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan announced that the groundbreaking for the LLEX has finally been set on June 14.
The P25-billion LLEX project is expected to provide motorists a faster route going to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) as it will connect the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) to the airport.
The LLEX is a 12-kilometer expressway project starting from Barangay Babag 2, passing through the Mactan Economic Zone, Mactan Aviation Road, Barangays Pajac, Buaya, Bankal, Ibo, and ending in Pusok.
The skyway is expected to reduce traffic and shorten the 35-minute trip from Cebu City to the MCIA to just 12 minutes.
According to Chan, motorists passing the CCLEX often experience traffic congestion at Marigondon and Calawisan area, but the skyway will soon solve the bottleneck.
“The only way to solve (traffic congestion) going to airport, is (if) they can pass through the skyway,” said Chan.
Chan said he again invited President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to attend the groundbreaking ceremony in June.
Earlier last April 27, Marcos was also in Lapu-Lapu City to attend the 503rd Kadaugan sa Mactan, a commemoration of the historic Battle of Mactan in 1521 that killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Delays
Chan announced during his state of the city address in July 2023 that the LLEX project would start two months later in September.
But Lapu-Lapu City Legal Officer James Allan Sayson, in a SunStar Cebu report in September 2023, said the civil works for the project might yet start in January 2024.
The skyway project is expected to provide economic returns amounting to P66.5 billion over a 50-year period to the city that will earn about 40 percent of gross commercial revenues.
The LLEX is being undertaken through a joint venture agreement between the City Government and the consortium of Premium Megastructure Inc., Ulticon Builders Inc. and MTD Philippines Inc. / JJL