MPTC spending 130 billion to build Cebu-Cordoba bridge

MACTAN, Cebu – Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) announced it will fork out R30 billion for the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), the 8.5kilometer toll bridge project that will link Cebu City from its prime South Road Properties (SRP) to Barangay Pilipog of Cordova Municipality in Mactan Island.

The actual construction starts in the second quarter of next year and the 4-lane toll bridge, which is expected to have an initial traffic of 40,000 vehicles daily, will be completed by 2021, according to MPTC President and CEO Rodrigo E. Franco.

MPTC will finance 70 percent of the project cost, or R20 billion, via equity and 30 per cent, or R10 billion, via borrowings from about six local banks. They expect the financial closing by the second or third quarter of 2018.

MPTC subsidiary, Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC), will build, operate and maintain CCLEX under a joint venture agreement with the Municipality of Cordova and the Cebu City Government.

The expressway project will provide alternative link between Mactan Island, where the Mactan-Cebu International Airport is located and Metro Cebu, the regional growth center of the Visayas.

The CCLEC yesterday (December 14, 2017) formally awarded the R22.6-billion “Design and Build” contract of the CCLEX to the Cebu Link Joint Venture (CLJV), a consortium of Spain-based Acciona Construccion SA, with local firms First Balfour, Inc. and D. M. Consunji, Inc.

Financing cost, overhead, Right of Way acquisition, consultancy fees will account for the balance of the R30 billion project.

Last March 2, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project in Cordova, Cebu.