SMC all set to start P15.5-B project

The company that bagged the P15.5-billion Naia Expressway Phase II project hopes to start the construction of the tollroad in the next few weeks, San Miguel Corp. president Ramon Ang said Friday.

San Miguel, which was awarded the project in May last year, will start with all the right-of-way requirements, Ang said.

The implementing agency of the project, part of the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program, is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The construction arm of the Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc. was earlier tapped to build the 7.75-kilometer elevated expressway, which will also have a 2.22-kilometer at-grade, or street level, feeder road.

“We hope to start in January. We are just making sure it will not cause too much traffic,” Ang explained.

A DPWH official did not comment on whether the right-of-way issues have been resolved. But Ang, when asked about this, said “not yet.”

The Naia Expressway 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.

The expressway will be built in two phases. The first, which will connect Entertainment City to Naia airport terminals 1 and 2, is expected to be completed by March 2015. The succeeding phase, which will extend the tollroad to Naia terminal 3 and then to Skyway, will be completed by September that same year.

San Miguel, through a subsidiary, won the bidding for the project on May 6 when it offered to pay P11 billion up front.  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.

The DPWH already decided to defer the construction of the P2.7-billion Edsa-Taft flyover to give way to the Naia Expressway Phase II.

Simultaneous work on both projects would affect traffic conditions, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said in a previous interview.

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

It is one of five PPP project awarded by the Aquino administration thus far. The four other projects are the Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway Link, which went to Ayala Corp., while Megawide Construction Corp bagged two school building infrastructure projects and the upgrade of the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City.