The Department of Public Works and Highways expects the traffic situation in EDSA to improve by at least 30 percent this year with the completion of more expressway projects in Metro Manila.
“In order to bring EDSA back to its original capacity, we need to take out about 200,000 vehicles,” Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said.
About 380,000 vehicles use Edsa, the biggest thoroughfare in Metro Manila, daily.
Villa said Skyway Stage 3, NLEX-Connector Road, NLEX Harbor Link, the C5 Southlink Project and the Estrella Pantaleon Bridge Project would further decongest EDSA once these projects were completed.
The Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 Project is an 18.68-km elevated expressway from Buendia, Makati City to the North Luzon Expressway in Balintawak, Quezon City.
The NLEx-SLEx Connector Road is an 8-km elevated expressway, extending the NLEx southward from the end of Segment 10 in C-3 Road, Caloocan to PUP Sta. Mesa, and connecting it to the Skyway Stage 3.
Villar said the Skyway Stage 3 project would relieve EDSA of over 100,000 cars and Harbor Link at least 30,000, most of which are trucks.
The NLEX-Connector Road, meanwhile, is expected to reduce another 50,000 cars from EDSA.
“More or less, if you estimate based on the number of vehicle traffic we are expecting from these projects, it should bring back EDSA to its original capacity,” Villar said.
“I would think that by 2020 if I had to estimate, 20 to 30 percent improvement. By 2021 it will reach maybe 40 percent improvement,” he added.
According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency the updated daily cost of traffic in Metro Manila was P3.5 billion in 2017, higher than the estimated P2.4 billion based on the previous transport roadmap.
By 2035, the daily cost of traffic will is seen going down to P3 billion with the government’s infrastructure program. It said with additional projects, the impact would be further reduced to P2.4 billion.