DPWH, SMC sign Naia Expressway agreement

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) formally signed Monday the concession agreement with conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) for the Naia Expressway Phase II project, one of the government’s public private partnership (PPP) deals.

DPWH Undersecretary Raphael Yabut said the government and San Miguel were now proceeding with the project, which aims to link the capital’s main airport terminals to the Entertainment City Manila casino complex as well as the South Luzon Skyway and Manila Cavite Toll Expressway.

Yabut said San Miguel had been given until the end of the year to complete the detailed engineering for the toll road, which the government estimates will cost P15.52 billion to build.

DPWH is also negotiating for the right-of-way, which it expects will be completed before the end of the year, Yabut said.

“Construction is expected to start by January 2014,” Yabut said in an interview.

He said the first phase, which will connect Entertainment City to Naia airport terminals 1 and 2, is expected to be completed by March 2015, or “sooner.” The succeeding phase, which will extend the toll road to Naia terminal 3 and then to Skyway, would be completed by September that same year.

San Miguel, through unit Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., was awarded the project on May 6 after it paid P11 billion in cash.

That amount, about 36 times bigger than the offer submitted by the only other bidder, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., comes on top of the construction cost.

San Miguel will operate the airport toll road for 30 years.

The Naia Expressway Phase II project is a four-lane, 7.75-kilometer elevated expressway and 2.22-km at-grade, or street level, feeder road, information on the PPP Center website showed.

It starts at the existing Skyway then follows the existing road alignments over Sales Avenue, Andrews Avenue, Domestic Road, and Naia Road, and has entry/exit ramps at Roxas Boulevard, Macapagal Boulevard, and Entertainment City.

The Naia Expressway Phase II project is the third PPP project to be awarded by the Aquino administration.