S. Korean firms awarded Panguil Bay bridge consultancy deal

THE GOVERNMENT has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with South Korean firms to assist in the preparation of the proposal for the planned P4.9-billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project in Northern Mindanao.

In a statement, the Department of Public Works and Highways ( DPWH) said under the agreement, starting this month, the consultants are to assist the agency in conceptual design, preparation of bidding documents, design review, construction supervision, and postconstruction supervision of the project.

“Yooshin Engineering Corp., in joint venture with Pyunhwa Engineering Consultants Ltd., and Kyong-Ho Engineering & Architect Co. Ltd., won the competitive bidding under the Philippine government procurement program to provide consultancy services,” DPWH said on Wednesday.

The Panguil Bay Bridge is funded under loan agreement with the Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund. The P4.9-billion infrastructure project is expected to accelerate and sustain the economic growth in Mindanao regions by making the transport of goods and services more seamless and eff icient.

The project is a 3.48-kilometer, two lane bridge that will connect the city of Tangub in Misamis Occidental to the municipality of Tubod in Lanao del Norte.

The bay is a long, thin inlet of Iligan Bay. Its outline forces travelers to detour around the shoreline, a detour that would be bypassed by directly connecting Tubod with Tangub on the opposite shore.

The government announced last year that it obtained a $ 100.13- million loan from Export- Import Bank of Korea ( Korea Eximbank) for the construction of the Panguil Bay Bridge.

Korea Eximbank manages the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), an off icial development assistance program established in 1987.

The $100.13-million loan, according to the Department of Finance then, represents the first investment of EDCF in a bridge infrastructure and will cover about 88% of the project’s P4.9billion total cost. The project will cost the government P23.89 million, P180.97 million and P337.34 million in the following three years.

The government earlier targeted to complete the Panguil Bay Bridge Project in 2018. It is expected to cut the travel time between Tangub City and Tubod City to seven minutes from 2.5 hours. It will also shorten trips from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan to the cities of Tangub, Ozamiz, Oroquieta, Dipolog and Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte. —