Sangley airport toll road link to Cavitex eyed

Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. wants to connect the Sangley airport to its Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) project via a new P30-billion toll road south of Metro Manila.

Roberto Bontia, president of Metro Pacific unit Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC), told reporters that they were in talks with the Philippine Reclamation Authority to extend the Cavitex, a 14-kilometer toll road from Roxas Boulevard along Manila Bay through Cavite via exits in Bacoor and Kawit.

He said the new toll road would span 22 km and extend Cavitex in Kawit to Tanza.

It will also have a 5-km spur road going to Sangley airport, which the Department of Transportation is currently upgrading for generation aviation and certain commercial flights within 2019.

“We are getting a resolution from the PRA board and then after we will jointly submit [the proposed road] with CIC,” Bontia said.

He said the new expressway, which he described as an alternative segment 5 alignment, would connect Kawit, Noveleta, Sangley and Tanza.

Bontia said the project still had a long way to go as its feasibility study was ongoing. He said the company was hoping to start construction by 2021 while the completion of the first phase—the link to Sangley airport—was expected by the second quarter of 2022.

Sangley airport is drawing more attention after the DOTr said the airport would be open for commercial operations by November this year. The initial plan is for Sangley airport, a former Philippine Air Force base, to serve general aviation operations such as private flights to help decongest air traffic in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Budget airline Cebu Pacific also previously committed to operating its newly established air cargo service out of Sangley airport.

The Cavite government is separately planning a P500-billion reclamation project in Sangley, which it hopes to transform into a new international airport hub to serve long-term demand in Metro Manila and nearby areas.