DPWH eyes November award of key Bataan-Cavite bridge section

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The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) aims to award a 3.1-kilometer section of the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge (BCIB) by next month, subject to approval of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is co-financing the project.

Based on the BCIB’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) uploaded on the DPWH website, the section set to be awarded next month is Package 6 of the BCIB, which involves the South Channel Bridges and Approaches.

“Mag-a-award kami ng (We will award the) P6, which is the most critical part of Bataan-Cavite, within November. It’s already pending with the ADB for concurrence,” DPWH Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon told reporters on the sidelines of the EJAP Infrastructure Forum in Makati City.

Package 6, or the South Channel Bridge, will be located between Corregidor Island and Cavite, the bigger of the two proposed cable-stayed bridges. It will have a span of 1,800 meters between the two pylons, creating an opening for ships to pass through as they go in and out of Manila Bay.

It will also feature two monopole-style towers standing 346 meters above the seabed, or about 306 meters above sea level. It will likewise have a “Nearshore Navigation Channel” provided near the Cavite shoreline.

“‘Yung foundation kasi nung P6, ‘yung matataas na tore. Ang dalawang foundation na ‘yan na malalaki, igugulong. Each foundation is bigger than Araneta Coliseum, just as a trivia,” Dizon said.

(The foundation for P6 are the tall towers. The two massive foundations will be rolled out. Each foundation is bigger than the Araneta Coliseum, just as a trivia.)

The BCIB is planned as a 32-kilometer bridge connecting Mariveles in Bataan and Naic in Cavite, expected to cut travel time between the provinces from five and a half hours to 45 minutes.

The project is bankrolled through a multi-tranche financing scheme, under which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will finance $ 2.1 billion, while the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will co-finance $1.14 billion. —AOL, GMA News