Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway Corp. is interested in building the proposed Metro Cebu Expressway Project under the public-private partnership program, a top executive said over the weekend.
“We are looking at the Metro Cebu Expressway. It’s a circumferential road,” said CCLEX president and general manager Allan Alfon.
The proposed MCE project is a north-south bypass road along the hills of Metro Cebu.
The arterial toll road is expected to serve as another north-south backbone highway providing a seamless traffic flow from Naga City to Danao City, traversing along the slopes of the mountain range of Cebu province.
It is seen to address the traffic congestion in Metro Cebu especially its urban core and the central business district.
The Department of Public Works and Highways said the project would reduce travel time between Naga City and Consolacion from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes and between Naga City and Danao City from 3 hours to 50 minutes.
The agency said the indicative project cost of MCE is about P94.07 billion.
“There was already a marketing event done by the DPWH to prospective private investors. They invited Metro Pacific, Prime Infrastructure of Ricky Razon and then I believe there are other few players,” ’Alfon said.
MCE is one of the priority projects of the DPWH under the PPP program.
CCLEC earlier completed the P33-billion Cebu Cordova Expressway—an 8.5 km. bridge linking Cebu City , the municipality of Cordova and outlying towns of Cebu province.
CCLEX has two lanes in each direction that will provide a safe, quick and scenic passage to around 50,000 vehicles daily, easing the traffic in two old bridges―the Marcelo Fernan Bridge and the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.
CCLEX has a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour and a navigational clearance or height of 51 meters to allow large vessels to pass underneath the bridge.