Recently, the National Economic and Development Authority, (NEDA) the government’s economic development planning body, has approved 12 new infrastructure projects to be built in the country. In particular interest to Metro Manila are 2 projects which are hoped to alleviate the metropolis’ traffic woes. (the operative word there is “hopefully”)
It has to be noted though that these two projects (at least some aspects of them) are not really new. In fact, they have been long in the pipeline but it is only now that NEDA gave them the approval to get started with these projects.
One of the approved projects involves the construction of new elevated interchanges (AKA flyovers) along major intersections in the city. In particular, these will be built at the intersections of EDSA-Roosevelt and Congressional Avenues, EDSA-Mindanao-North and West Avenues, and the C-5-Green Meadows-Calle Industria-Eastwood area.
The other one involves the construction of a vehicular underpass along Gil Puyat Avenue (formerly Buendia Avenue) which intersects with Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue.
These areas have long been identified as traffic bottlenecks so it is hoped that the construction of such infrastructure will help alleviate the traffic there. But before that, commuters should brace themselves for the expected traffic jam that would be brought by the construction of these projects.
For the meantime, work is ongoing in the construction of Phase II of the elevated NAIA Expressway. Picking up where the present NAIA Expressway from Skyway to Sales left off, Phase II takes the expressway up to Andrews Avenue, Domestic Road, MIA Road up to the PAGCOR Entertainment City in the reclamation area. This would serve to link not only the Entertainment City to NAIA and SLEX-Skyway (and vice versa) but also the 4 terminals of NAIA which did not have a viable, quicker link to connect them for a long time.
As always, as with many government projects, it is best to not be too excited about them as plans may either change drastically or be scrapped completely. It is best to keep an eye on their developments. Though in the case of the NAIA Expressway, it would be safe to say that things are moving on quite well.
Acknowledgements as well to NEDA
