MPIC bares infra plans in Cebu

Infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is keen on extending its P30-billion Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEx)—a toll bridge that will connect mainland Cebu from Cebu City to Cordova town in Mactan Island—all the way to the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

MPIC also intends to participate in the building of the fourth interisland bridge in Cebu, which the local government is now studying, MPIC chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a briefing yesterday.

At 8.25 kilometers, CCLEx will be the longest bridge connecting two islands in the Philippines once it is completed by 2021. It will also be Cebu’s third interisland bridge.

“We have a proposal to connect where we are in Cordova by tollways to the airport,” Pangilinan said, adding that MPIC had also expressed interest to local officials to build the fourth Cebu bridge.

Rodrigo Franco, president of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), said the group was now doing the feasibility study to connect CCLEx to the airport. Depending on the alignment, Franco said the extension to Mactan airport could cost P8 billion to P10 billion.

The interisland CCLEx is estimated to cost P30 billion if all the ramps were completed but for now the cost is about P24 billion.

Franco said the proposed fourth bridge would likely be shorter than CCLEx and would be done on the side of mainland Cebu. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA