San Miguel Corporation (SMC) on Thursday said it started work on a 1.2 kilometer road that will connect the Skyway Stage 3 to the ongoing NLEX Connector Road Project.

Ramon S. Ang, SMC president and chief executive said the  is “working on what’s workable,” in order to mitigate delays in right of way (ROW) acquisition for the connection, located at the Nagtahan to Sta. Mesa areas in Manila.

The connection, part of the detailed engineering design of the Skyway 3 project, can be completed within 24 months or less soon as the ROW issues with the landowners are resolved, Ang said.

“This connection is vital because it will link two major expressways, Skyway Stage 3 and the Metro Pacific Tollways’ connector road project –making accessibility, interoperability, and ease of travel even better for the public,” Ang said.

He said the connection would be complete before or by the time the NLEX connector road is completed.

MPTC’s P23.3 billion 8-kilometer Connector Road is expected to be completed  before of the Duterte administration in 2022.  The first section of an elevated expressway from Caloocan to España Boulevard in Manila will be operational  by yearned. 

Skyway Stage 3 stretches from Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati and traverses through San Juan, Manila and Quezon City all the way to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX).

We’re already mobilizing our contractors to start work in areas that are unobstructed, where we’re permitted to work. We’re also already committing the funds needed to buy the ROW properties, so hopefully, these issues will be resolved the soonest,” Ang said.

According to Ang, right-of-way acquisition was the single biggest constraint to the Skyway Stage 3 project. While advance work was started in 2014, actual work on the main sections 1-4 only started in 2015, because of ROW issues. 

The company mitigated the delays by starting construction in “available” areas, to improve the chances of completing the project soonest and immediately address the worsening traffic in Metro Manila.

However, even then, a lot of ROW issues remained unsettled, prompting numerous realignments and redesigns. SMC also paid for all the ROW properties and spent for the transfer of vital utilities as well as the reconstruction of three bridges, in order to complete Skyway 3.

“The alignment for this connection to the NLEX connector project, which the Metro Pacific Tollways Group is building, was supposed to be built together with Section 2 of Skyway 3 in the Nagtahan to Sta. Mesa area. However, about two years since we first worked on workable areas for Skyway 3, the ROW issue in section 2 threatened to stall the project. That is why we proposed to realign Skyway 3 along the San Juan River, so that the project could be completed faster and provide a solution to traffic—not cause more of it,”Ang explained.

He added: “To show our commitment to complete the connection, even if the main alignment was already moved to San Juan River, we signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). We basically already committed the budget for the ROW acquisition–we will pay for it–and we will complete this section within 24 months.”

Ang said the even as the company negotiates for the settlement of ROW issues, it has already started work on available areas and has employed a ‘just-in-time’ sequence, anticipating the timely delivery of the ROW.

“Originally, this was supposed to be delivered December 2020, but it’s now pushed back. But we want to assure the public and government that we will do everything to complete it in less than 24 months, once we get the ROW,” Ang added.