The moment motorists and commuters in Manila have been waiting for is now at hand or quite.
After a number of delays, the city’s Ayala Bridge will be reopened to vehicles today. But here’s the hitch: only one lane on each side of the bridge will be passable and only to light vehicles, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said yesterday.
DPWH Assistant Regional Director for the National Capital Region (NCR) Butch Canlas said the north and southbound lanes of the bridge will be open to traffic around 5 a.m. today.
Canlas said the decision to have Ayala Bridge only partially opened to vehicular traffic is due to “remaining works.” He enumerated these as the installation of dampers; post tensioning; and painting on the structure.
“There would still be sandblasting and painting on the bridge’s truss that is why one lane each will be opened,” Canlas said. “That is for safety reasons,” he added.
Nevertheless, the DPWH official believes that the partial opening of the bridge will still reduce traffic congestion in the area.
Ayala Bridge is a four-lane steel truss-type bridge in San Miguel, Manila. It measures 139 lineal meters and has a superstructure with a width of 25 meters. It connects the city’s Ermita and San Miguel districts.
DPWH and project contractors, Frey-Fil Corp. and EEI Corp., started the repair works on the bridge last March. The project costs almost half a billion pesos.
For the past three months, they have been working to restore the bridge’s structural integrity by strengthening its existing abutments and pier foundations and constructing a continuous slab design with an additional four-inch slab on the bridge deck.
The rehabilitation plan includes lifting of the bridge by some 70 centimeters to allow the free passage of taller barges and vessels navigating the Pasig River.
Repairs on the bridge, however, encountered substantial delays during the course of work.
MANILA BULLETIN
