The construction of the South East Metro Manila Expressway Project (SEMME), which is expected to decongest major thoroughfares in Metro Manila once completed, has taken off.
SEMME, the first phase of the Metro Manila C-6 Expressway Project, is a six-lane 34.024-kilometer combined elevated and at-grade expressway with two-directional traffic flow.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr), Toll Regulatory Board, Department of Public Works and Highway, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), and the city government of Taguig led the project’s groundbreaking on January 8.
According to the DOTr, SEMME will start in the south and connect to the existing Skyway Stage 1 in FTI, Taguig City, then end at the Batasan Complex in Quezon City. It will eventually connect to the North Luzon Expressway via Balagtas, Bulacan.
Aside from decongesting roads in Manila and Quezon City, particularly major road networks such as EDSA, C-5, and Ortigas Avenue and its extension, SEMME will likewise provide commuters and motorists, as well as Metro Manila inter-city travelers, fast and direct access by south and southeast to major international and domestic airports.
Once the project is completed, travel time of motorists from Bicutan, Taguig to Batasan, Quezon City will be reduced to only 35 minutes.
Section 1 of this expressway project is expected to be finished and open for public use by 2020.
DOTr said it hopes the project, expected to cost P31.32 billion, will “decongest EDSA, C5 and other major arteries of Metro Manila and Rizal by providing alternate route from Parañaque to Quezon City by passing through the developing areas of Taguig, Taytay, Antipolo, and San Mateo.”
San Miguel Corporation’s Citra Intercity Tollways Inc. holds the project’s concession, which will run for 30 years.
The C-6 Expressway project will have a second phase involving a 24.28-kilometer expressway that will provide links to San Mateo, Rizal and San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.
Image courtesy of mapichai at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
