Ground broken on South East Metro Manila Expressway Project

January 8, 2018

The Department of Transportation - Toll Regulatory Board (DOTr-TRB), in partnership with the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH), the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), and the city government of Taguig, led the groundbreaking of the South East Metro Manila Expressway Project (SEMME) Monday. DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade, DPWH Secretary Mark Villar, BCDA President & CEO Vince Dizon, Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, and other LGU officials  led the groundbreaking ceremony at the C-5 service road in Taguig. Although construction is scheduled to start in April, Tugade asked San Miguel Corp., the concessionaire to start it sooner. "What we can say is that we will do our best to make this possible at the soonest possible time," said SMC Engineer Norberto Conti. SEMME, the first phase of the Metro Manila C-6 Expressway Project, is a 34.024-kilometer, six-lane, combined elevated and at-grade expressway with two directional traffic flow. It will start in the south with a connection to the existing Skyway Stage 1 in FTI, Taguig City, and would end in Batasan Complex in Quezon City. It will eventually connect to the North Luzon Expressway via Balagtas. Aside from decongesting roads in Manila and Quezon City, particularly major road networks such as EDSA, C-5, Ortigas Avenue, and its extension, SEMME shall provide commuters and motorists fast and direct access by south and southeast, as well as Metro Manila inter-city travelers, to major international and domestic airports. When completed, travel time of motorists from Bicutan, Taguig to Batasan, Quezon City will be reduced to only 35 minutes. San Miguel Corporation—the project’s concessionaire, owns Skyway O&M Corporation, the company that assumed from PNCC Skyway Corporation (PSC) the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the Skyway System on December 31 2007. Meanwhile, Citra Intercity Tollways, Inc. (CITI), a unit of SMC, is the project concessionaire of the C6 Expressway. Phase 1 Section 1 of the project is targeted to be completed in 2020. DMS