Firm offers plan to build P52-B elevated highway

MANILA, Philippines – AKH General Contractor, a civil engineering company, plans to build a P52 billion elevated highway that would connect the cities of Manila to Taguig through the Pasig River. The company, owned by Filipino-Chinese businessman Armando Khong Hun, has submitted to the Duterte administration an unsolicited proposal for the project last year and is now awaiting feedback from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways. In the proposal, Hun said the project would help ease, if not eliminate traffic in EDSA and other major thoroughfares in the Metropolis. “The elevated highway project called ‘Integrated Viaduct and Personal Rapid Transit System (IVPRT)’ would have a total length of 21.74 kilometers with four lanes,” AKH said. In its submission, AKH said the multi-billion project would reduce vehicular traffic along EDSA by 23. 13 percent. The DWPH and the DOTR are now evaluating the proposal. AKH is the same construction company behind the bridge above the Parañaque River as part of the newly-opened NAIA Expressway project. Under the proposal, there will be a first phase which would consist of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project that would construct four lane viaducts above Pasig River from Delpan Bridge in Manila through Bonifacio Drive/Roxas Boulevard to Napindan Bridge in Taguig where it will intersect Metro Manila Circumferential 6. The government is targeting to finish the C-6 project, which will run from Skyway/Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig to Batasan Complex in Quezon City by 2020. AKH also plans to build on and off ramps in Delpan in Manila, Napindan in Taguig and other ramps in the cities of San Juan, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Marikina. The Pasig River Viaduct from Delpan Bridge to Napindan Bridge will have center line length of 21.74 kilometers with seven interchanges, according to the design of the project.