MMDA postpones repair of Sucat Interchange Bridge

Southern Luzon Expressway. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the city government of Parañaque ordered on Wednesday an “indefinite postponement” of the 45-day repair of the Sucat Interchange Bridge, which was supposed to start this Saturday.

In a statement, Parañaque Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez said that his office, in coordination with the office of MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino, ordered the temporary stoppage of the repair because the DPWH had “failed to notify the MMDA and the city government in advance.”

Olivarez said he received the letter of the DPWH district engineer about the planned repair “only” last Friday.

The MMDA, meanwhile, learned of the plan “only after Mayor Olivarez issued an advisory about the possible traffic jams resulting from the bridge closure.”

“The Sucat Interchange bridge retrofitting has been held in abeyance. This should give us more time to prepare contingency measures and alternative routes to mitigate the effect of the bridge repair on our constituents and motorists,” Olivarez said.

He said that the repair would cause “massive traffic jams” along Dr. A. Santos Avenue (Sucat Road), Ninoy Aquino Avenue and the East and West Service Roads of the SLEx.

As such, he said he was “leaning towards the implementation of a selective truck ban along major roads in the coming weeks” to “help alleviate traffic in the city…if and when the DPWH resumes the repair work on the Sucat Interchange.”

He said they would hold consultations with the truckers’ associations in the city in the coming days to come out with details on the proposed truck ban.