The long-delayed P4.8-billion Bicol International Airport (BIA) project finally took off on December 8.
President Rodrigo Duterte and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade led ground-breaking ceremonies, marking the start of the P708-million construction work on the landside facilities of the airport project.
BIA contractor Sunwest Construction and Development Corporation said the project will be completed by 2019, seen to boost tourism and economic development not just in Bicol but in the entire Southern Luzon.
Sunwest Construction owner Elizaldy Co, in a report, said the landside facilities will consist of 17 buildings for administration, cargo terminal, air traffic control, crash fire rescue, power house, maintenance, material recovery facilities, pump room and water reservoir, chilled water pump house, two chlorination houses, and guard houses.
The headquarters of the Department of Transportation (DOTr)-Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines will also be built on the site.
The airport project was delayed for 11 years after it was conceptualized and approved by the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which passed it on to the government of former President Benigno Aquino III for implementation.
The government had initially spent some P1.6 billion to acquire the land for the project and to construct a 2.1-kilometer runway. The airport should have been operational this year, but lapses in the bidding process caused a work slowdown despite available funds.
Construction work had been confined to the airside while the structure at the landside area of the proposed airport was still being worked out.
Once finished, the BIA project will address the technical limitations of the existing Legazpi airport, providing safer air transportation to the growing number of passengers as tourism booms in the area.
BIA, which lies on a 148-hectare area with a 2,100-meter runway strip, will be equipped with night-landing capability and take-off facilities, a control tower, passenger and cargo terminals, a car park, a fire station, and other modern facilities.
Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara said he has requested DOTr to revise the airport’s design to meet the standards of an international airport. Quoting architect Felino Palafox who was consulted for the project, Bichara said even as the international airport has yet to operate, “it seems the facilities are already obsolete.” Palafox suggested the taxiway be revised to make room for airplane arrivals and departures, and the existing two-lane road that connects the airport to the Maharlika highway be expanded into a six-lane road in line with global requirements.
