The Department of Public Works and Highways is eyeing a $1.95-billion loan from the Asian Development Bank to help fund the construction of the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge Project.
It said it was expecting to obtain approval for the ADB loan by November this year.
The ADB, together with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, earlier agreed to co-finance the civil works construction of the project which was targeted to start by 2024.
The project will be divided into seven contract packages, with the construction to begin first in the two on-land packages. Package 1 refers to the 5-kilometer Bataan Land Approach and Package 2 involves the 1.35-kilometer Cavite Land Approach.
Packages 3 and 4 are Marine Viaducts in the north and south with a total length of 20.65 kilometers.
Meanwhile, packages 5 and 6 are the North Channel and South Channel Bridges with a length of 2.15 km. and 3.15 km., respectively. The seventh package involves a project-wide ancillary works.
The BCIB project will provide a permanent road link between the provinces of Bataan and Cavite, the key missing link in the road network of Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon regions.
The project will be about 32 km. long, comprising two cable-stayed bridges with the main spans of 900 and 400 meters for navigation channels, 24 km of marine and land viaducts and 5 km of approach roads.
It will serve as an alternative route from north Luzon to south Luzon without traveling through the heavy congested roadways of NCR, and thus reduce the pressure on the existing north-south corridors.
BCIB may also serve as the main evacuation route for the people of Bataan, Cavite, Rizal and south NCR in case of a natural hazard, according to the DPWH.
The feasibility study for the BCIB Project was completed under the ADB’s Infrastructure Preparation and Innovation Facility in 2019, when the preliminary architectural and engineering design was prepared.
Once the bridge is completed, travel time between the provinces of Bataan and Cavite will be reduced from 5 1⁄2 hours to about 45 minutes, saving more than four hours of travel and benefitting thousands of commuters.