Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) said on Wednesday the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway’s (CCLEX) main bridge span has been connected, marking the conclusion of “a complex project” that covered three years of non-stop construction.
“Today, we have achieved a major construction feat, when the two-meter gap that had separated main bridge deck of Tower 1 from the bridge deck of Tower 2 became one; thanks to a special joint concreting engineering procedure done over the waters of the Mactan Channel, and linking two economies with a lot of promise—Cebu City and the Municipality of Cordova,” said MPTC President Rodrigo E. Franco.
The main bridge deck hovers 51 meters above the Mactan Channel.
CCLEX is expected to be opened by early 2022.
“The significance of the moment is expressed in a marvelous engineering way, stitching the remaining gap between the CCLEX’s Tower 1 deck with Tower 2 deck—pointing to the project’s much larger role in finally linking the quaint town of Cordova in Mactan Island to the highly urbanized Cebu City in the mainland,” Franco said.
The P30-billion CCLEX is the third bridge that links Mactan to mainland Cebu. The 8.9-kilometer bridge expressway has a design speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour and is seen to reduce traffic in the area.
“After today’s main bridge deck connection, we look forward to another milestone: Opening CCLEX to the public for commercial operations in the first quarter of 2022. We can’t wait to see Cebuanos enjoy the ultimate expressway experience afforded by using this bridge,” Cebu Corodova Link Expressway Corp. President Allan G. Alfon said.
CCLEX is MPTC’s first local expressway project outside Luzon.
