San Miguel Corp. unveiled a long-term expansion program to increase the capacity of its southern Metro Manila toll roads to help the government ease traffic congestion in the metropolis.
San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said the group’s infrastructure arm was now ready to implement the expansion of South Luzon Expressway, Skyway system, Naia Expressway and Southern Tagalog Arterial Road and was just waiting for the go-signal from the government.
“All technical studies for the expansion of all our southern Metro Manila toll roads are now complete and ready for construction. We’re just waiting to get final approval for each of these projects from the Toll Regulatory Board,” Ang said.
He said the massive expansion could be completed by unit San Miguel Holdings Corp. in three years.
These projects are expected to decongest not only the traditional chokepoints at the Alabang viaduct, the Sucat and Bicutan interchanges, Magallanes, the C5 entrance and exit to SLEx and the NAIAx entry to Skyway, but also the traffic on public roads leading to these major entry and exit points.
“There is no stopping the Philippines’ growth. With this, more people will be traveling, more goods will be transported, so we expect that traffic volume will just get worse,” Ang said.
“The expansion of these major expressways is long overdue. But we’ve done our homework. We’ve invested to complete the studies and designs, and we’ve submitted all of these to the Toll Regulatory Board for their review. All these projects can be completed within three years, provided government gives us the green light to proceed right away,” Ang said.
SMC is also looking to add a fifth lane each to both the southbound and northbound lanes of SLEx to Calamba exit, effectively widening it to ten lanes.
First phase of the project, from Alabang to Susana Heights, is estimated to cost P130 million and can be completed in a year. The project involves extending the width of the expressway towards its perimeter fence.
