The Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China have officially signed a pact for their first ever infrastructure partnership project under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte administration.
In an event held Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at the DPWH Head Office in Port Area, Manila, Department of Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar and Embassy of China in the Philippines Economic and Commercial Counsellor Jin Yuan signed the Minutes of Discussion (MOD) for the full grant, to finance the construction of two (2) bridges that will soon be a new landmark in the cities of Manila, Makati, and Mandaluyong
The signing of the deal for the construction of state-of-the-art Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantelon Bridges in Manila and Makati/Mandaluyong was witnessed by DPWH Undersecretary for Unified Project Management Office Operations Emil K. Sadain and Economic and Commercial Counsellor Second Secretary Yang Ming.
According to Secretary Villar, the grant will cover the design and construction of the bridges while DPWH will be responsible for the acquisition of its road right-of-way.
Earlier, a Chinese Project Team has been dispatched to provide DPWH with recommendations and technical assistance for the stages of project preparation, initiation, and implementation.
Based on the initial project design, Binondo-Intramuros Bridge will be constructed into a four-lane, Steel Bowstring Arch Bridge with inclined arches that will connect Intramuros side at Solana Street and Riverside Drive and Binondo side at San Fernando Street with a viaduct. It will have a total length of 807 meters, composed of 90-meter main bridge, 488-meter Binondo approach, and 193-meter upramp and 166-meter downramp Intramuros Approaches.
The Estrella-Pantelon Bridge will also have four lanes, but will be a 560-meter Twin Spine steel box girder bridge with concrete deck slab. It will utilize the existing approaches at Makati City and Mandaluyong City sides, with modification on abutment and pier to accommodate new bridge superstructure.
The construction of Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantelon Bridges will be implemented by the DPWH Unified Project Management Office-Roads Management Cluster I.
Two other proposed projects namely: Panay-Guimaras-Negros Link Bridges and Davao City Expressway will likewise receive grant from the Chinese Government through Feasibility Study. | via DPWH
