The Skyway project will eventually connect Makati City and Quezon City

Speedway set Soon this portion of the Skyway will be busy with vehicles that would happen in December when the whole stretch opens.

Metro Manila residents may get their best Christmas present for the year after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yesterday revealed that the P37.43-billion Skyway Stage 3 Project would be operational by December.

The DPWH said the full range of the highway network connecting the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) will be made available.

It will have eight access ramps/interchanges strategically located on Buendia Avenue (South Super Highway, Makati City), Pres. Quirino Avenue (Malate, Manila), Plaza Dilao (Paco, Manila), Nagtahan/Aurora Boulevard (Manila), E. Rodriguez Avenue (Quezon City), Quezon Avenue (Quezon City), Sgt. Rivera St. (Quezon City), and North Luzon Expressway.

In a statement, the DPWH said the completion and use of the project could help ease traffic in Metro Manila that peaks during the Christmas season as data from the agency showed that the construction of the highway network’s Stage 3 is 75 percent complete.

The Skyway will eventually connect Makati City and Quezon City, starting at SLEX in the south and ending at NLEX in the north.

“To ease traffic congestion in EDSA and C5, we are targeting to open two lanes, one of the northbound and southbound sections of the main alignment of Skyway Stage 3,” DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said.

“By the end of this year, we expect the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, an 18.68-kilometer elevated expressway stretched over Metro Manila from Buendia, Makati City to Balintawak, Quezon City to be completed,” he added.

Full operation of the Skyway is expected to ease traffic on EDSA, the DPWH said, and the project is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2020.

DPWH Secretary Mark Villar vows to deliver on the pledge to end the traffic crisis before the turn of the year.

Once the Skyway opens, at least 100,000 vehicles would be diverted from Edsa and C5, and travel time from Makati to Quezon City would be reduced from two hours to just 15 to 20 minutes, which is just above the five-minute travel time estimated by Mr. Duterte.

At the same time, the DPWH reported that the right-of-way acquisition for the mainline of Skyway Stage 3 is almost 100 percent delivered.

The government is fast-tracking the implementation of priority infrastructure projects.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said 46 out of the total 75 flagship projects costing P2.18 trillion are under implementation.

“Aside from the Skyway, many of these projects have been completed or near completion. These include the Bohol-Panglao International Airport, the Harbor Link project which connects the Port Area to the NLEX, besides a number of other projects under the department in Northern Luzon and a few Mindanao road projects,” Pernia enumerated.

Pernia, who is also director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said the government targets to complete 22 projects by the end of the Duterte administration.