San Miguel Corp. on Wednesday said the 18-km elevated Skyway Stage 3 will be a no-truck zone and will be dedicated to Class 1 vehicles with Autosweep RFID stickers starting July 12.
Through its Skyway O&M Corporation – operator of the Skyway system – SMC president Ramon S. Ang said the twin moves would address safety concerns on the elevated expressway, and at the same time limit the risk of a spread of variants of the COVID-19 virus–especially since the vast majority of its motorists have migrated to the Autosweep RFID electronic toll collection system.
The announcement comes after Skyway 3 was issued a Toll Operating Permit and a Notice to Start Collecting Toll by the Toll Regulatory Board, after operating for free to the public for almost seven months.
SMC pegged its total foregone revenues on Skyway 3 since it opened to the public for free late December 2020 at close to P3 billion.
“We continue to look for ways to improve safety and user experience on our expressways, especially the new Skyway 3. We have implemented a number of measures to ensure safety, prevent over-speeding, and facilitate the more efficient flow of vehicles while still providing motorists significantly reduced travel times,” Ang said.
“Limiting Skyway 3 to regular or Class 1 vehicles will also further ensure safety for all users. With more private vehicles diverted to Skyway 3, our public roads will be freed up and decongested. This will benefit, number one, our public transportation and commuters. It willb also be beneficial to transporters of goods, who can opt to use the at-grade sections of the Skyway system where tolls are lower, as well as public roads which are free, as they are subsidized by government,” Ang added.
Meanwhile, regular motorists who will opt to use public roads instead of Skyway 3, are also expected to benefit from the elevated expressway, as it is capable of diverting and handling up to 200,000 vehicles per day, or half of Edsa’s daily traffic volume users since December 2020. This has significantly improved traffic on all its tollways.
Mandatory cashless transaction on all expressways was implemented in compliance with the DOTr – TRB Department Order 2020-012, which was issued to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 and to improve traffic queueing at the toll plazas.
Even as majority of regular users have transitioned to cashless electronic toll collection, SMC maintains free RFID sticker installation sites to ensure continuous availability and easy and convenient installation of free RFID stickers.
SMC fully-funded the construction of Skyway 3 to solve the decades-long traffic problems of Metro Manila and build a seamless connection between the South Luzon and the North Luzon Expressways.
It spent an estimated P80 billion to complete the project, more than double the original cost, due to numerous redesigns and realignments that were the result of contentious right-of-way issues.
In a related development, a congressional leader on Wednesday filed measures that would grant 20 percent discount to senior citizens (SCs) and persons with disability (PWDs) using the Skyway and other expressways whose toll are paid through the radio frequency identification devices (RFID) or similar systems provided the vehicle is registered under their names.
In filing House Bill 9644, Deputy Speaker and Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay said the senior citizens should be exempted from the toll payment. “[All they need to do is] to present and submit any government-issued identification card (ID) showing their date of birth,” he said.
For PWDs, Atienza said House Bill 9643 requires them to present and submit a copy of their PWD ID to the toll operator when applying for or buying RFID loads.
Both HB 9644 and 9643 mandate the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), Philippine National Railways (PNR), Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to issue corresponding circulars or directives to the public land transport sector for the implementation of the rules to ensure compliance therewith, as well as requirements for these operators to disseminate information to SCs and PWDs by posters, handbills or pamphlets. With Maricel Cruz