Traffic still OK but no need to relax, says MMDA

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino. INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Tuesday said traffic “is still okay” along Osmeña Highway and along roads near the site of the Metro Manila Skyway stage 3 as work on the project started Tuesday morning.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said this is because the construction has just started and not yet on a “full blast.”

“Traffic is still okay but we do not need to relax,” Tolentino told reporters during a site assessment Tuesday morning.

He said the MMDA continues to monitor the situation as traffic is expected to build up later Tuesday.

Two inner lanes of the Osmeña Highway starting in San Andres, Manila, were closed to traffic to give way to the start of the infrastructure project.

MMDA traffic enforcers and highway patrol groups of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were deployed on the area to manage the traffic situation.

The P26.7 billion Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project will connect the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) and the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx).

The project which is expected to be completed by 2016 is meant to decongest the crowded Epifanio De los Santos Avenue (Edsa), the country’s busiest highway.

MMDA has advised motorists and commuters to take alternate routes as it made a projection of how bad traffic would be on Edsa once work on this major infrastructure project goes on full swing.

It said, without this urgency, it might take motorists and commuters a whole day to move through the 54-kilometer highway.