Metro Pacific may finance feasibility study for Cebu link

Look who’s interested in a 3rd Cebu-Mactan Bridge – business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan.

Discussions are being finalized for a feasibility study for a third access linking Cebu mainland with Mactan through Metro Pacific Investments Corp. which Pangilinan heads.

“Once we sign a Memorandum of Agreement on this, we can proceed in order to have a feasilibility study,” said Marc Canton, lead convenor of the Movement for a Livable Cebu (MLC) during its second anniversay celebration on Sunday.

Canton said they are hopeful that logistics for the study will be approved for the bridge design prepared by MLC member and architect Joseph Michael Espina.

Architecture students of the University of San Carlos helped fleshed out details of a renewed urban landscape of parks, bike lanes, and a Fisherman’s Village under the bridge in C. Padilla intersection, Cebu City.

The unusual route of the bridge doesn’t cross the Mactan Channel like the two existing bridges which connect to Mandaue City.

It proposes to link one end in south Cebu City in C. Padilla Street intersection and arches over the South Road Properties to Shell Island, and from there a separate causeway will be built over the water to Cordova town in Mactan Island.

MEGA CEBU PRIORITY

The project has beeen adopted in the Mega Cebu vision of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Council which is celebrating the first Mega Cebu month this September.

No costs were given yet but a feasibility study is the first step to assess how much investment is needed to build the infrastructure, hopefully before 2021, the 500th anniversary of Cebu as the “cradle of Christianity” in Asia.

The need for a 3rd bridge to decongest traffic in Metro Cebu and anticipate needs of urban growth has been emphasized for years by several business groups, House bills and resolutions of the Regional Development Council in Central Visayas but never materialized.

Another group is proposing a 3rd bridge connecting the northern part of Cebu City from Plaza Independencia.

“We had another meeting with the Dept. of Public Works and Highways (DPWH ) where another group presented another model for a third bridge,” Canton said.

“But connecting Mactan in the north part of the city solves nothing, really. It is better (in the south) because there is less disruption. We can have open space and parks and honor a historic district,” Canton said, referring to the Tres de Abril street and conservation of the Parian district, where the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Basilica del Sto. Niño and heritage houses are located.

Espina is the dean of USC’s College of Architecture and Fine Arts and one of the original urban planners of the 1980 Metro Cebu Land Use Transportation Study (MCLUTS).

MODEL ON DISPLAY

A scale model of the bridge design by graduating USC -CAFA students is on display at the J. Centre Mall in Mandaue City. Images can also be viewed on the blog uscampuslife.blogspot .com

Both ends of the bridge have dramatic pillars inspired by swords of Ferdinand Magellan and chieftain Lapu-Lapu in the Battle of Mactan. The model was unveiled last week during the kickoff of Mega Cebu month.

The proposed cable-stayed bridge and causeway will be constructed from the Shell Island in Cordova and will extend to the mouth of Guadalupe river in C. Padilla Extension. This will connect V. Rama Avenue and South Road Properties.

Canton said no final word has been given yet by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. but MLC is preparing to seal the deal.

This would require them to gather more data with MCDCB which is chaired by Gov. Hilario Davide III with private sector co-chairman Dondi Joseph.

“Once we sign an MOA (with Metro Pacific) we can proceed in order for us to have a feasibility study,” Canton said in a separate interview.

“Hopeful this will happen.”

The proposed bridge route aims to address choking traffic in Metro Cebu and create more open spaces in Cebu City and revitalize historical sites.

A conceptual model by graduating CAFA students provides a park under the bridge that tells the story of the Tres de Abril revolution.

It also envisions a renewed barangay San Nicolas, Ermita and Pasil where a vertical housing development project called “Fisherman’s Village” addresses the housing problem. The on-site relocation will free some space for heritage parks under the proposed bridge.

Espina in a May 8 press conference said locating one end of the bridge in the southern district of Cebu would also increase economic activity in poor communities around the South Road Properties (SRP).

Heritage sites in Pari-an and San Nicolas will also be conserved based on the development plan.

FOOD STREET

Aside from the bridge, MLC is embarking on a project to revitalize a 70-meter alley that connects the Basilica del Sto. Niño to Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.

This section of F. Zamora Street between the two churches is filled with vendors selling religious icons, flowers and street food.

“The street can become a small food street and we can ask the city to allow only foot traffic, at least partly because of the businesses on the side,” said Louella Alix, one of the MLC convenors.

Fr. Tito Soquiño OSA had suggested improving this road section so it would be cleaner, orderly and inviting to churchgoers and tourists.

USC-CAFA students are helping design the project.

Alix said they have already talked with the vendors, and the barangay captain of Sto. Niño and had written Cebu city mayor Michael Rama about the project.

FLYOVER LOBBY

MLC began in 2011 as a citizens initiative to lobby against the rise of new flyovers of Rep. Cutie del Mar and her father Raul in Cebu City, including one proposed in front of the Asilo de la Milagrosa church.

The core group celebrated its second anniversary with a Mass on Sept. 8 at the church, followed by a simple dinner at the St. Catherine’s Hall where volunteers usually meet for updates. A new MLC office in Asilo was recently completed.

The opposition to flyovers led to a moratorium on new flyovers issued by DPWH Secretary Jesus Singson. Since then, the MLC has widened its efforts to promote well-planned urban growth for a “livable” Cebu, where respect for the environment, clean air, space for homes and pedestrians, coexists with economic prosperity. / Senior Reporter Marian Z. Codilla and Eileen G. Mangubat