Davao City Bypass Road Construction Project’s tunnel section to become PH’s longest road mountain tunnel

The Davao City Bypass Road Construction Project's tunnel portion is set to become the longest road mountain tunnel in the Philippines. Upon completion, the length of the mountain tunnel road will run for 2.3 kilometers (km).

As of Thursday (October 6), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has achieved approximately 200 meters of tunneling for the northbound and southbound directions, both at the north and south portals. Excavation of three to four meters is being accomplished per day in each portal direction using specialized equipment such as a drill jumbo, concrete spraying machine, and articulated dump hauler to excavate a tunnel that has a diameter of 10m.

DPWH said that the construction of the road tunnel involves excavation of tunnel portal areas using the conventional “New Austrian Tunneling Method,” mucking or removal of soil from the tunnel interior, initial shotcrete to protect from risk of fall materials and to prevent loosening during shotcrete application, steel ribs installation to provide effective structural protection, second shotcrete with wire mesh to secure stability, and rock bolt installation to provide bearing force and become a part of tunnel support system. 

Also, major expressway operators from Japan visited the Davao City Bypass Road Construction Project on Wednesday (October 5). The tour was conducted in line with the cooperation program between the DPWH and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). 

Together with DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil Sadain; Assistant Secretary Constante Llanes Jr.; MLIT Deputy Director General Homare Kubota and Consul General of Japan in Davao Ishikawa Yoshihisa; Project Directors Benjamin Bautista and Rodrigo Delos Reyes of DPWH Unified Project Management Office (UPMO) Operations; and DPWH Region 11 OIC Assistant Director Joselito Caballero, the representatives of the Japanese expressway firms visited the north portal of the on-going tunnel project which is the centerpiece of Contract Package (CP) 1-1 of the 45.5-km Davao City Bypass Construction Project.

The expressway companies are Central Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., East Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., West Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd., Metropolitan Expressway Company Ltd., Hanshin Expressway Company Ltd., Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company Ltd., and Japan Expressway International Company Ltd. including Philippine construction firm Prime Metro BMD Inc. and MGS Construction Inc.

Per Sadain, the observation visit is a follow-through activity to the workshop held in Manila which paved the way for productive discussions and good interactions between leaders of Filipino and Japanese companies engaged in expressway and road tunnel projects for possible future business collaboration.

The workshop, covered by a Memorandum of Cooperation signed last October 4 by DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan and MLIT Minister Tetsuo Saito, gives more leverage on how the Philippines can adopt state-of-the-art technologies from Japan for projects like tunneling, expressways, and even long inter-island bridges.

In addition to the tunnel, the CP involves the construction of a four-lane road with a length of 7.9km; three pairs of bridges with a total length of 500m including the Davao River Bridge; two underpasses and two overpasses; 12 waterways culverts; and four at-grade intersections.

The ongoing CP 1-1, which costs P13.23 billion, is financed by the Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) Loan between the Philippines and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under loan agreement numbers PH-P261 and PH-P273.

The Davao City Bypass Road Construction Project is being implemented by DPWH Unified Project Management Office — Roads Management Cluster 1 (Bilateral) headed by Project Director Bautista with Project Manager Joselito Reyes as project in-charge.

Photos from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)

Also read: 

DPWH to put up new flyover in Bataan

ADVISORY: DPWH to resume weekend road repairs in NCR until Oct. 3

Lawmaker pushes for bigger DPWH budget for 2023