June 1, 2020 | 12:04 am [ bworldonline.com ]
THE Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway is expected to be completed in 2021. — COMPANY HANDOUT
By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter
THE P30-billion Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEx), one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects that is expected to ease the worsening traffic in Metro Cebu and help spur economic growth in the Visayas, is now more than halfway complete, its developer said.
“As of April 30, 2020, the overall Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway project stands at 56.86% while construction progress alone is at 42.04,” Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC) President and General-Manager Allan G. Alfon told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed reply to questions on May 29.
He added that only a skeleton workforce was fielded to undertake necessary work at certain portions of the 8.5-kilometer toll bridge project during the enhanced community quarantine period.
“As to the project’s timeline, we are reviewing the pandemic’s impact on the target date of completion. Rest assured that all the teams involved in the CCLEx project continue to work hard towards completing it next year. Projecting, however, the exact month in 2021 is a challenge considering the current conditions,” Mr. Alfon said.
The whole bridge was originally scheduled to open in the month of March, in time for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the country.
“With the transition to a more relaxed community quarantine, though, we can already accelerate work on the project’s different components,” Mr. Alfon added.
The toll bridge project, which is expected to benefit around 50,000 vehicles daily, will connect mainland Cebu in Cebu City to Mactan Island through Cordova, a coastal town in the province.
CCLEC is a subsidiary company of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the tollways arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), one of the three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
______________________________________________
