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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DPWH road improvement in Davao City

DPWH road improvement in Davao City

Published Nov 21, 2021 12:06 pm

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) held a symbolic blast on Friday, Nov. 19, to officially start the construction of a 2.3 kilometer road two-tube mountain tunnel in Davao City.

The road tunnel is part of the 10.7 kilometers Contract Package I-1 of the Davao City Bypass Construction Project (DCBCP) implemented by DPWH Unified Project Management Office (UPMO) Operations.

The construction of the two-tube tunnel hopes to improve the transport logistics and mitigate vehicular traffic congestion in the city.

Present during the event were DPWH Secretary Roger G. Mercado, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhiko Koshikawa, DPWH Undersecretary for UPMO Operations and Chief Implementer of Flagship Projects ‘Build, Build, Build’ (BBB) Program Emil K. Sadain, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Eigo Azukizawa.

According to Sadain, the tunnel project is the first-ever long-distance mountain tunnel in the Philippines, which was designed by Japanese experts to have better seismic resiliency.

“Together with rapid population growth and economic development in recent years, DCBCP will provide job creation during construction, and economic benefits through reduced travel time savings across the city,” said Sadain.

To support the underground development, the department had equipment that included a horizontal boring machine for geotechnical investigation, a twin header tunnel excavator and drill jumbo, which were deployed to work at the north and south portal.

Additional equipment on the ground also includes erecter with the shotcrete machine, tunnel ventilation and dust collector, side dump pay loader, and articulated dump truck.

The project is under the overall construction supervision of UPMO-RMC 1 Project Manager Joselito B. Reyes and Engr. Earl Nicholas F. Rada. The civil work contract for the construction of the tunnel was awarded to Shimizu– Ulticon–Takenaka joint venture with Nippon Koei–Katahira–Nippon Engineering–Philkoei as engineering consultant.

This contract package costing ₱13.230 billion is expected to be completed by January 2024.

Also part of the contract package is the construction of a 7.9 km 4-lane road, three pairs of bridges with a total length of 500 meters, two underpasses, two overpasses, 12 box culverts (waterways), and four at-grade intersections.

The 45.5 kilometer bypass road that will begin in Barangay Sirawan, Toril, Davao City and will end at Barangay J.P. Laurel, Panabo City will cut the usual travel time of 1 hour and 44 minutes via Maharlika Highway to just 49 minutes.

The entire DCBCP is divided into six contract packages.

Packages I-1, I-2 and I-3 are being financed by JICA Loan Agreement Nos. PH-P261 and PH-P273 while packages II-1, II-2 and II-3 are funded by the Government of the Philippines.

Also present during the event were DPWH Undersecretary Eugenio R. Pipo Jr., as well as Assistant Secretary Ador G. Canlas of the DPWH Regional Operations in Mindanao, Embassy of Japan in the Philippines Second Secretary Matsubara Tomohiro, DPWH Region 11 Director Rey Peter Gille, Project Director Benjamin A. Bautista of UPMO Roads Management Cluster 1, former Project Director Virgilio C. Castillo, Mr. Fidel Arcenas of the Office of DPWH Secretary, and other Japan Embassy and JICA officials.

Related Tags

Department of Public Works and Highways Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhiko Koshikawa davao city DPWH Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain DPWH Secretary Roger G. Mercado build build build JICA Chief Representative Eigo Azukizawa japan international cooperation agency
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