SMC to put New 2-lane ramp in Alabang-Skyway next month

Good news for South Luzon! A temporary steel on-ramp will be put up to connect the Alabang viaduct to the Skyway. In statement from the San Miguel Corporation quoting its president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang, the ramp will be operational starting December 1.  Such move is expected to significantly improve traffic flow on the SLEX, along with the ongoing construction for the Skyway Extension project. The ramp, which will have two lanes, are to expand the northbound section of SLEX in Alabang from three to five. “The limitations in the original design of the SLEX is that it has five lanes coming from Susana Heights heading to Alabang. However, this narrows to four lanes at the Alabang viaduct and connects with the Skyway at-grade that has only three lanes. This is the main reason why Alabang has always been a chokepoint for traffic,” he explained. “This is the main reason why we are building the Skyway extension. We want to make the northbound and southbound sections five lanes each all throughout,” he added. Last September 25, Skyway O&M closed one northbound at-grade lane of the Skyway in the Alabang area to start preliminary work on the project. The stretch of slow-moving vehicles on that day reached 19 kilometers, way above the daily average of 10 kilometers. “Again, I sincerely apologize to all affected motorists--those who got stuck in traffic on that day, and everyone who continues to be inconvenienced by this project,” Ang said. “My commitment to you is that by December 1, all preliminary work will be done. We will reopen the closed-off lane and restore use of all three at-grade northbound lanes.” “Traffic will not only return to ‘normal’ levels, it will even improve. That’s because we are also opening the temporary ramp from the Alabang viaduct going up to Skyway. With a total of five lanes northbound, I think we can expect a significant improvement in the traffic,” he added. Solving Alabang traffic “once and for all” The Skyway Extension project is a more than P10 billion undertaking funded by San Miguel to extend the Skyway all the way to the Susana Heights / Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway (MCX). It will add three lanes northbound, translating to additional capacity of 4,500 vehicles per hour, and two lanes southbound, which will accommodate an additional 3,000 vehicles per hour. “By next year, September or October, we will complete the Skyway Extension. This will solve northbound and southbound traffic congestion once and for all,” he said. Skyway Stage 3 set to open April Ang also said that by April 1 next year, the company will open the Skyway Stage 3 project, which stretches from Buendia, Makati to San Juan, Manila, Quezon City, all the way to the North Luzon Expressway. “That is another reason why we have to do the Skyway Extension in the south. With the opening of Skyway Stage 3, more vehicles will be using the expressway. We want to eliminate choke points and give motorists a seamless connection from north to south and vice-versa,” he said. He noted that every year, some 1 million vehicles are added to Philippine roads, and yet for the longest time, Edsa has served as the lone connector between northern and southern Luzon. “Today, travel time between Baliktawak up to Buendia in Makati takes several hours. With the Skyway Stage 3, that will only take 15 minutes. Motorists from the south can also go directly to any point in Makati, Manila, Quezon city, and bypass Alabang and Edsa.” “More importantly, Skyway 3 will take out about 50% of vehicles on Edsa, according to our estimates,” Ang said. “That is why we are asking for just a little more patience and cooperation from the public. Para sa atin po lahat ito, solusyon sa matagal nang problema sa traffic. If we do not do this now, for sure, the situation will be much worse for all of us in the very near future.”