By Jerra Mae Librea
Reprinted from SunStar Cebu with editions
CIVIL works for the proposed Guadalupe ramp in Cebu City are expected to start in the middle of 2024 once all the documentary requirements are completed.
This was the latest update of the proposed project, one year since its groundbreaking took place.
Officials held the groundbreaking and laying of the time capsule at the Forbes Bridge along Magallanes St. on Nov. 8, 2022.
The Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC), in a statement on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, said it is still working on the pre-construction phase.
It said the parcellary survey and the as-built survey for the project alignment have already been completed.
“We target to start civil works for the Guadalupe ramp in the middle of 2024 and we are closely working with the Cebu City Government for the implementation of the project,” the CCLEC said.
Mayor Michael Rama, during his Ingna’ng Mayor program on Sugboanon Channel of the city’s People’s Progressive Radio Media Network, assured that an infrastructure will be seen standing “in due time.”
Rama also said he has been closely coordinating with CCLEC president and general manager Allan Alfon and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
“You don’t have to worry. I am constantly in contact with Allan (Alfon) and with former DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson, who is now the president of MPTC (Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.),” the mayor said.
“With our connections and our very nice relationship with Manuel Pangilinan (MPTC chairman), we can continue following with that,” he added.
In previous interviews, Alfon said the project cost would be around P2 billion to P3 billion and would take around 18 months to build.
The ramp is expected to cater to 12,000 vehicles that need to traverse the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX).
The Guadalupe ramp is an extension of the third bridge, providing motorists from N. Bacalso and V. Rama Avenues, particularly those from Barangays Guadalupe and Labangon and other nearby areas, access to the bridge, which connects Cebu City and Cordova town in Mactan Island.
The 8.9-kilometer modern toll expressway has catered to 3.6 million vehicles since it opened to the public in April 2022.
In a press conference on April 27 this year, Alfon said the CCLEX catered to an average of around 7,000 vehicles. The number has increased to an average of 12,500 daily a year after.
He said on weekends, vehicles using the bridge reached almost 17,000 vehicles daily.
Once the Guadalupe ramp is completed, the CCLEC expects the third bridge to cater to around 50,000 vehicles daily.
The ramp was part of Rama’s original plan when he envisioned the CCLEX in 2013, when he was chairman of the Regional Development Council 7. The plan, however, was changed when former mayor Tomas Osmeña won the 2016 elections.
Last April, the CCLEC gave Cebu City and Cordova their share of the toll revenues, which was P1.69 million each.| SunStar Cebu
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