Metro Pacific Tollways starts work on Cebu-Cordova Link bridge

3195 Metro Pacific Tollways has started construction of a toll bridge to connect Mactan island to mainland Cebu.

The new bridge costing around US$540 million will be the third and most southern crossing between the two Islands that lie around 57kmn south of the Philippines capital Manila.

“It’s a project that will take three years to construct, so we expect completion in 2021,” said MPTC president Rodrigo Franco, according to a report in the Philippines Business World Online.

The 8.5km Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway will have a two-lane road, a main bridge, a viaduct at Cordova, an eight-lane toll plaza and a causeway. MPTC’s unit Cebu Cordova Link Expressway is in charge of the project.

Around 40,000 vehicles a day are expected to use the crossing.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar reportedly said the fedral government is also looking to construct a fourth Mactan-Cebu bridge, which is subject of a feasibility study by the 2416 Japan International Cooperation Agency. “We’re hoping to finish the feasibility study and engineering design by this year so the project could start next year,” he said.

MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific.