Philippine expressway system

[bing101]

Pinoy Joyride does another update on the BCG Bridge.

[bing101]

Here is a Shot of the Central Luzon Link Expressway.

[bing101]

Pinoy Joyride does an update on the Manila Skyway construction.

[bing101]

New Connector on the NLEX

[bing101]

Another update on the Manila skyway

[TheStranger]

Wow!

Skyway Stage 3 is officially declared complete.  Curing of the pavement is not done yet, but the whole roadway surface on the final Pandacan-Balintawak segment has been placed about 2 weeks ahead of schedule.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/759629/san-miguel-completes-skyway-stage-3-project/story/

Combining the STAR Tollway, SLEX, Metro Manila Skyway, NLEX, SCTEX, and TPLEX routes, this essentially means 186 or so miles of limited-access road now between Batangas in the south and Rosario, La Union to the north!

[Chris]

I tracked the route in Google Earth, it appears to be a lower standard expressway with tight curves in several places, more like the NAIA expressway than the North and South Luzon Expressways.

This'll be the first controlled-access highway that runs through the entire metro area of Manila.

[bing101]

Pinoy Joyride takes a new tour from Manila to North Luzon.

[bing101]

Another group does a tour of the Cebu Cordova Expressway.

[TheStranger]

Skyway Stage 3 opening date (specifically the segment from the Paco exit in Manila north to NLEX/EDSA in the Balintawak district of Quezon City) is likely in December with no toll for the first month of operation.

https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/20/rsa-skyway-stage-3-open-and-toll-free-for-one-month-in-december/

---

Skyscrapercity has a 550 page thread on the development of the Skyway with tons of photos and even some exit number/interchange diagram guides!  In there is also talk of how Skyway Stage 3, while the first through controlled-access route within Manila, serves a different corridor from the still-to-be-completed NLEX-SLEX Connector that will split off of the Skyway near the Pandacan district.

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/metro-manila-skyway.1492516/page-549

Most intriguing is this planning map which shows that the Metro Manila Skyway may still have even further north to go, as part of a long-range concept to extend it to a New Manila International Airport!


(And a very distant future proposal for an EDSA Skyway to separate through traffic from those commuting to offices and malls between Makati and QC)

[TheStranger]

Article on the soon-to-be-open Skyway Stage 3 segment which also mentions multiple other projects to be opened to drivers in the next 15-18 months:
https://wheels.ph/dpwh-nears-edsa-traffic-busting-promise/

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyTJ-0tvybg&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8pFsqkIoVY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjtDxYRc5H4

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxo1KjnLD4w

[TheStranger]

https://www.motopinas.com/motorcycle-news/additional-1-500-workers-needed-by-nlex-for-connector-road.html

(This is for the parallel corridor to Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, the extension of the NLEX Harborlink south from Caloocan to the Pandacan area in Manila)

[TheStranger]

Neat map showing projects in progress or proposed in Metro Manila:



https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/21/buildbuildbuild-key-road-bridge-projects-to-bring-back-edsas-old-form1/

One thing that occurs to me looking at this map:  Once we get to the end of 2021, Metro Manila will have gone from zero through north-south freeway routes prior to this year, to essentially two (Skyway Stage 3, NLEX-SLEX connector).  This could entirely affect future development:

- Prior to the start of the Skyway Stage 3 project, living and working in Metro Manila essentially meant living either within the EDSA belt route or within 10 miles of it.  Will this essentially extend the suburban reach of the region as far north as say, Marilao?  The effects of this may be more muted on the south end because access to Makati's CBD has been all-expressway from Laguna province to Buendia Avenue for about 15 years.

- The planning map here shows only one interchange slated for the 5 mile NLEX-SLEX corridor segment from Caloocan to the south terminus at the Skyway's Plaza Dilao exit near Pandacan.


The Harborlink segment of the NLEX already is open, I wonder if that will be the default route for anyone going towards Luneta Park and Roxas Boulevard rather than exiting further south at Espana on the connector. 

- Will the interchange of the NLEX-SLEX Connector and the Skyway be fully directional?  If so, it effectively would create an urban loop not unlike I-277 in Charlotte, the Peripherique in Paris, the former full extent of Rochester's Inner Loop, and I-670/I-70 in Kansas City.  I could see some traffic (especially Grab car drivers) from Quezon City using this loop to bypass many stoplights to get from one end of Espana street to the other.

- This planning map, along with OpenStreetmap, shows an interchange between the Skyway Stage 3 and C-3 Road, which leads into 5th Avenue in Caloocan and directly connects to the NLEX Harborlink.  Could create an interesting situation where this becomes a bypass for highway travelers if there are any backups on the NLEX-SLEX connector or on the final 2-3 miles of the Skyway heaidng towards the NLEX mainline:


- When the Connector is finished, the two closely parallel routes will somewhat resemble say I-470/I-70 in Wheeling, WV - with the difference being Metro Manila's historically terrible congestion.  I remember some Sig Alert type signage already on EDSA marking travel times...remains to be seen which of the two highway corridors will be preferable for accessing Makati from the north or Manila and QC from the south.  At the very least, two functional north-south limited access viaducts supplementing the existing EDSA arterial should make a difference not dissimilar to, say, when US 101 in Santa Barbara was converted from conventional boulevard to full freeway in 1991-1992.

The NLEX-SLEX connector having only one exit south of Caloocan may make it the better "bypass" route overall once it is completed - I also wonder if that Espana exit will be a bottleneck though, or if local traffic will be encouraged to use the Skyway.

- In one of the videos I posted above, I saw a Shell station close to one of the ramps.  There are plenty of existing businesses on Osmena Highway and Quirino Highway underneath the Skyway's Makati-Manila right of way (though a Shakey's pizza at the Osmena/Quirino junction was demolished in 2017 to accommodate the new highway).  A minor thing, but would be interesting to see if the US phenomenon of gas stations adjacent to a freeway having higher prices ends up occurring along the viaduct corridors within EDSA.

- One of the main traffic generators in the region for years has been intercity bus travel, particularly when buses based near Pasay (Buendia/Taft avenues and EDSA/Taft) and along EDSA would then take off towards the northern provinces.  With the Skyway and soon the NLEX-SLEX connector being shorter, faster routes towards NLEX, will EDSA start to resemble a typical suburban boulevard by 2021-2022 rather than the parking lot it has been on weekdays?

[bing101]

Here is an update on the Cebu Cordova Bridge. This is a major bridge construction is going to be a cable stayed bridge and its going to be similar in design like the recent Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, CA.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebu%E2%80%93Cordova_Link_Expressway

[TheStranger]

NLEX-SLEX Connector update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJxz9oORpU

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL-geFxZP9c

17 minute video which goes in depth into the Skyway Stage 3 project, including a spotlight on an innovative Indonesian technique on building freeway support pillars in a way that they can be rotated 90 degrees to the eventual alignment of the carriageways.

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5cZlAQt08c

https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/24/right-of-way-reforms-critical-in-skyway-stage-3-completion/

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXoZ7YSklak

[TheStranger]

A little in the longer-range plans for Metro Manila (and seen in that New Manila International Airport planning map earlier in the thread), but I'm still surprised this is even being proposed - a new expressway along the R10 and Roxas Boulevard corridors passing through Pasay, Malate, Ermita, and Tondo near some of the city of Manila's seaside tourist districts!

Something that TBH would likely be shot down in the US for many different reasons, but being considered in earnest in the modern day NCR due to how bad traffic through Manila has been even with a north-south light rail line going through town for the last 36 years.

https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/03/02/1997328/nlex-keen-port-expressway-link-project
https://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/PPP/projs/NLEX_Cavitex



In the span of about 5-6 years, the region will have gone from zero north-south through routes other than the EDSA arterial way beyond capacity...to three (NLEX-Cavitex, NLEX-SLEX, Skyway Stage 3) with an outer bypass (C6/Southeast Metro Manila Expressway) in the works...

..along with a proposed elevated expressway on the EDSA alignment itself:
https://manilastandard.net/business/corporate/312604/smc-submits-proposal-to-build-edsa-skyway.html

By 2030, Metro Manila could essentially go from no limited-access routes between Makati and QC whatsoever, to a highway network denser than Tokyo, New York City, and downtown Los Angeles. 

[TheStranger]

Skyscraper City continues to be a forum with a lot of info and photo gems:

NLEX-SLEX Connector thread, 151 pages long
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/nlex-connector.1518081/page-151

Historic NLEX and SLEX photos, primarily pre-Skyway era:
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/old-pictures-of-nlex-and-slex.2285871/

Thread on the proposed east-west Pasig River Expressway (PARAX) project that would be the one east-west link from Manila past Ortigas Center to Pasig:
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/pasig-marikina-expressway.1813565/page-10

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo2FZneKmEw

[TheStranger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNk-V_y0sME

[TheStranger]

Paving work on the Skyway Stage 3 alignment:

https://www.facebook.com/pinoyjoyride/posts/3981294755219270?__cft__

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