Portion of Barangay Ermita to be used for bridge viaduct

A portion of a cityowned property in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City will be affected by the construction of the 8.5-kilometer Cebu Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX).

The good news – no families will be displaced.

At least 751 square meter of the 3,039 square meter property at Lot 4, Block 31 in the barangay will be used by the proponent of the third bridge for its viaduct, which will be overhanging over the same viaduct's pile cap that will occupy about 171 square meters.

With this, the Cebu City Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Tomas Osmeña to sign and execute the Deed of Usufruct in favor of Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation (CCLEC) for the property that the city owns.

“Under Section 7.1.2 of the Concession Agreement, the City of Cebu and the Municipality of Cordova shall be responsible for providing the right of way on public lands respectively owned by them, including all incidental costs required for the removal and clearing of structures and the resettlement of occupants,” read a portion of the approved deed.

Mayor's Executive Assistant Francisco Fernandez assured that there will be no families that will be displaced because of the implementation of the project.

“No displacement sa families. Ang haligi sa third bridge nga mabutang sa Ermita is dili maka-affect sa mga residente kay isa ka building ang naa sa lugar. I assure you, there will be no demolition of houses,” he said.

Fernandez said the area that will be affected has a small multi-purpose building erected on it.

He said it is easy for the city to reconstruct the building in another place.

Fernandez said the city government has to comply with the provisions stated under the Joint Venture Agreement with Municipality of Cordova and Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corporation (MPTDC) and the Concession Agreement between the city, Municipality of Cordova and CCLEC.

These provisions, he said, stated that the City of Cebu should allow MPTDC and CCLEC the use of public land owned by the city if required by the CCLEX project.

The 8.5-kilometer bridge that will connect Mactan Island to the mainland of Cebu is expected to be completed in 2021.

It features on and off ramps at Cebu City through the Cebu South Coastal Road which will be constructed alongside the existing viaduct and it will merge above to connect to the main bridge.

The civil works of CCLEX project is undertaken by the Cebu Link JointVenture, a consortium of Spain-based Acciona Construccion S. A., and Philippine-based First Balfour Inc. and D. M. Consunji Inc.