Construction of Manila Skyway tollway begins
Construction of Manila Skyway tollway begins
By Soeryo Winoto
MANILA (JP): President Fidel Ramos led the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday for a 500 million-dollar elevated highway project aimed at easing traffic in the capital of the Philippines.
The Metro Manila Skyway is the first such project jointly built by the Philippines and Indonesia. The elevated highway is being built by Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., a joint venture between local companies and the Citra Group of Indonesia.
Noted businesswoman Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, who controls the Indonesian group of tollroad construction and management companies, attended the ceremony yesterday.
It was marked by the turning of a 400-ton pier head to support a total of 47 kilometers of tollroad, which will be constructed stage by stage. The first pier head is located at Magallans Commercial Center, where 240,000 vehicles use the road in the area everyday.
The first stage of the project, according to the agreement signed in Jakarta in 1993, includes the construction of a 9.54 km new elevated road from Buendia area to Bicutan, and the repair of the existing 13.3 km toll road from Nichols to Alabang.
The investment needed for the first stage of the project is US$524 million, which comes from share holders ($100 million), middle and long term loans ($272 million) and convertible debt amounting to $142 million.
According to the schedule, the first stage will be completed in early 1998.
The second stage will see the construction of a 12.2 km toll road from Buendia to Querino Avenue, and will begin next year.
The third stage, which is to start in 1999, will cover a 11.8 km stretch from Querino Avenue to Andreas Bonafacio Avenue. The fourth stage will be from Bonafacia Avenue to the existing Manila North Expressway, and will be carried out in between 2001 and 2003.
At the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday, President Ramos boarded a crane and started the rotation of a pier head constructed on top of 5.3 meter concrete column.
The pier head which was previously constructed parallel to the traffic flow was turned into its final position in less then ten minutes. The rotation was made possible by a hydraulic non- friction rotary device, using technology invented by Indonesian engineer Tjokorda Raka Sukawati, 64.
In his speech Ramos said that the Manila Skyway was the first elevated tollway in the Philippines and the first pier head system constructed outside Indonesia.
"Please be patient, we are working to deal with the traffic problem," he told the crowd witnessing the ceremony.
Ramos, who is himself an engineer, then declared Raka Sukawati an honorary Filipino civil engineer. With this status, Raka Sukawati will be granted rights similar with those of local engineers, including teaching and designing.
"I think our students should stop studying civil engineering in the United States and start studying it in Indonesia," he said.
Hardiyanti Rukmana told a press conference after the ceremony that her company would seriously handle the Manila Skyway project.
"We have received several offers from Hungary, Pakistan, China, and Chile for the construction of tollways, but this Manila Skyway must be completed properly first," she said.
The hydraulic non-friction rotary device used to rotate the pier head system was named by President Soeharto "Sosro Bahu" (A thousand shoulders).
It was first used to support the 12-kilometer Cawang-Tanjung Priok tollway in 1988. The elevated tollway stretching from East to North Jakarta was constructed and is managed by PT Citra Nusaphala Persada owned by Hardiyanti Rukmana, the President's daughter.
Raka Sukawati invented the system because he was finding it difficult to prefabricate pier heads right above the traffic flows on the existing road without disturbing the traffic. Raka Sukawati is the president of the state-owned contractor PT Hutama Karya.