First Philippine Holdings Corp., the listed investment company of the Lopez group, said Monday a joint venture that includes its construction unit bagged a P22.6-billion contract to build an 8.5-kilometer expressway in Cebu.
Cebu Link Joint Venture, which consists of Acciona Construccion S. A. of Spain, First Balfour Inc. of the Lopez group and D.M. Consunji Inc., won the design and build contract awarded by a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. for the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, a bridge project that will connect Cebu City to the municipality of Cordova in the island of Mactan.
Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp., a subsidiary of MPTC, issued the notice of award to Cebu CLJV. MPTC is the toll road arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
“We are delighted to be part of this landmark project. We have put together a very experienced team, and are looking forward to working closely together with the customer to deliver a new toll bridge that will benefit both local communities and the Philippines,” Acciona’s Ruben Camba, representing CLJV, said.
“We are very confident that we can deliver a quality state-of-the-art bridge that will provide not just travel efficiency but also drive economic growth and productivity in the entire Visayas region, and improve the overall welfare of the Cebuanos,”Allan Alfon, CCLEC president and general manager, said.
MPTC president Rodrigo Franco said with the project, the company would bring to Cebu and the Visayas its expertise in building and operating world-class highways and bridges to create more opportunities and spur economic growth.
MPTC is the largest toll road concessionaire and operator in the Philippines that has now expanded its business to other Asean countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. CCLEX is the first of MPTC’s envisioned toll road expansion projects in Visayas and Mindanao.
CCLEC will build, operate and maintain the toll bridge through a joint venture agreement with the local governments of Cebu City and Cordova municipality.
CCLEX will have two lanes in each direction and will feature the main navigation span bridge, along with viaduct approach bridges, a causeway, roadway and toll facilities.
The span of the bridge allows for shipping traffic and the link is expected to serve at least 40,000 vehicles daily.
It will give Cordova direct access to Cebu City and is expected to decongest the traffic in the two existing bridges connecting Mactan and Cebu.