Construction of Philippines’ Longest Bridge Expected to Start This Year

Manila, April 6 (Engineering Daily) -- I was still a student in college in Negros and was travelling from my home island of Iloilo by boat that would usually take 2 hours, when I heard about the plan of a bridge project that will connect the islands. It was decades ago though, and finally, the most ambitious bridge program in the history of the Philippines will now become a reality.

Once realized, the Iloilo-Guimaras-Negros-Cebu Link Bridge will be the longest bridge to be constructed in the country through a grant from China. The longest bridge in the country now is San Juanico Bridge in Leyte which is two kilometers and considered as one of the Philippine icon in infrastructure development during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos.

US$2 billion is the estimated budget of the 24-kilometer bridge connecting the four islands in the Visayas. Iloilo to Guimaras is about 6 kilometer, Guimaras to Negros is 13 kilometers while Negros to Cebu is 5 kilometers.

This project is one of the President Duterte administration’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure programs to spur economic development aside from the Metro Manila Subway and the Mindanao Railway Project.

The bridge network will of course improve the economy the four islands through more efficient transport of people and goods – by road. It will bring about easy access to travellers and most importantly lowering the cost of transporting goods between the four islands. The transport of goods will be easier, faster and cheaper. The decrease in the cost of goods transport will translate to cheaper goods which is favorable to the residents of the islands.

The bridge will also be a big help to tourism in Western Visayas. According to the Department of Tourism, about 25 to 30 percent of the domestic tourists that are coming in this region are from the neighboring regions in the Visayas and travelling from one province to another will be a lot easier with the interconnecting bridges.

The project though will be done by phases. Phase 1 will be a bridge connecting Iloilo and Guimaras, Phase 2 will be a bridge from Guimaras to Negros island and the last phase will be a bridge from Negros Oriental to Cebu.