WORK AHEAD This section of Rizal Highway inside Subic Bay Freeport, which leads to the central business district, is closed for construction and due for completion in December. —PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBIC BAY METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — Road projects in this free port are now in full swing and are scheduled for completion by the end of the year after months of delay brought on mainly by the coronavirus pandemic, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said.
Most of the 40 of road projects are 95-percent complete, including sections of Rizal Highway, which is the main road traversing Subic’s central business district, as well as roads leading to the container terminal, the seaport and residential areas, said SBMA Chair and Administrator Wilma Eisma.
“The remaining project we’d like to see fully completed is the Argonaut Highway-14th Street segment of the Rizal Highway, and I’ve taken the contractors to task because of the resulting inconvenience to motorists,” Eisma said in a statement on Saturday.
She said work on this segment of Rizal Highway was started in October and is now 66-percent complete. Their engineers, she said, were confident this segment would be done by December.
The SBMA Public Works Group (PWG), which oversees infrastructure work undertaken by private contractors, said half of the current batch of road works were in various stages of construction but all had December 2021 as their deadline.
The SBMA-PWG said some of the projects were delayed due to variation orders to adapt to existing site conditions, bad weather, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic when public works projects were stopped for several months.
It said Rizal Highway sections 2 and 3 were 66.36-percent complete; San Bernardino Road, 80.76 percent; Boton Road, 91.36 percent; Palm Street, 74.68 percent; El Kabayo Road, 98 percent; Road to Leyte Wharf, 31.27 percent; and Binictican Road, 79.32 percent.
Completed were the Remy Field complex, Canal Road, Dewey Avenue, the Subic Bay Gateway Park access road, Sunset Calesa Street, Binictican Drive, Cubi-Aparri Road, Cubi-Tarlac Road, Cubi-Zambales Highway and the El Kabayo entrance.