San Miguel completes Skyway 3 project linking SLEX and NLEX

On Tuesday, Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) announced that the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 has been completed. It will connect the country's two main toll roads. 

Photo credit: mintfo.com

San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang announced that over the weekend, the company finished construction of the entire 17.93-km stretch of Skyway 3 that will link the South Luzon Expressway with the North Luzon Expressway. 

I’m happy to announce that the whole structure of Skyway 3 is now complete. With this, Skyway 2 in Buendia is now officially extended all the way to the North Luzon Expressway. After many challenges this project faced in previous years, the dream of connecting north and south and providing an alternative to EDSA is now a reality,

Ang said.

The completion was done ahead of the original October 31 schedule the company earlier announced, following delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skyway 3 is expected to cut travel time between SLEX and NLEX to just 20 minutes from 3 hours at present, by bypassing Metro Manila's main roads. 

Magallanes to Balintawak will only take about 15 minutes, Balintawak to Ninoy Aquino International Airport will be only 15 minutes, and Valenzuela to Makati in just 10 minutes.

However, Ang said that the expressway cannot be opened to the public just yet, as heavy rains have delayed finishing works, such as the proper curing of asphalt.

We just have to wait for the weather to improve so we can make sure that the asphalt will cure properly. That and a few more finishing touches are all that’s needed, and then we can open soon,

he added.

San Miguel said it is also aiming to finish the northbound section of the Skyway Extension by December this year.

Its P740-billion Manila International Airport project in Bulacan, said to be the largest single-item investment in Philippine history, is also set to break ground by the end of the year. According to SMC, it’s viewed as a game-changer for the Philippine economy as once completed, it will generate over a million direct and indirect jobs and will greatly open 30 million tourism jobs in the country.