The first ever long-distance road mountain tunnel in the Philippines will soon be established in Davao City.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said Friday, June 10, that it has reached a “new milestone” in the Davao City Bypass Construction Project with the start of the excavation works for the 2.3-kilometer twin tube road mountain tunnel in four areas of its north and south portals.
DPWH Undersecretary and “Build, Build, Build” Chief Implementer Emil Sadain led the ceremonial kick-off of excavation activities for the project’s south portal tunnel southbound direction in Brgy. Matina Biao, Davao City on Thursday together with Embassy of Japan in the Philippines Economic Affairs Minister Masahiro Nakata and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Takema Sakamoto.
“Simultaneous tunnel portal construction activities on both ends will fast-track the completion of the soon to be first-ever long-distance road mountain tunnel in the Philippines,” Sadain said.
The 45.5-kilometer Davao City Bypass Construction Project is divided into six contract packages (CP) with the on-going CP 1-1 covering a 10.7 kilometers of four-lane highway.
The 18.9-kilometer CP 1-2 and CP 1-3 are currently under the procurement stage financed by JICA through the Official Development Assistance (ODA). Meanwhile, the CP 2-1, CP 2-2, and CP 2-3 will be funded by the Philippine government and has a total length of 15.9 kilometers.
Other than the tunnel, the CP 1-1 involves the construction of four-lane road with a length of 7.9 kilometers; three pairs of bridges with a total length of 500 meters including the Davao River Bridge; two underpasses and two overpasses; 12 waterways culverts; and four at-grade intersection.
Once completed, the project is expected to slash travel time to under 49 minutes from the usual 1 hour and 44 minutes starting from Davao-Digos section of the Pan-Philippine Highway in Brgy. Sirawan, Davao City going to Davao-Panabo section of the Pan-Philippine Highway in Brgy J.P. Laurel, Panabo City.
The road tunnel construction works for the Davao City Bypass Construction Project started at the north portal on November 19, 2021 for southbound direction, and on December 10, 2021 for the northbound direction.
Meanwhile, excavation activities from opposite end at south portal northbound direction commenced just last May 12.
Sadain said the construction of road tunnel at north portal has reached 202 meters at southbound and 91 meters at northbound.
The opening of new road networks through the Davao City Bypass Construction Project is expected to “usher more development opportunities as it will greatly improve Davao City's accessibility and traffic condition.”
“On behalf of DPWH, I would like to thank our long-time infrastructure development partner the Government of Japan thru JICA for the unrelenting assistance especially for all the projects under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ Program that will benefit every Filipino in our quest to elevate their living condition through infrastructure development and economic growth,” Sadain said.