After being completed in October last year and officially opened to motorists at the start of 2021, the Skyway Stage 3 project, built and funded by San Miguel Corporation, delivers on its promise to ease traffic in Metro Manila and unlock economic opportunities for nearby provinces.
The 18-kilometer Skyway Stage 3 is the longest elevated expressway to date in the Philippines and the first to have three double-decker sections. It was first planned during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos and was finally completed under the Duterte administration.
San Miguel Corporation also reconstructed three major bridges along the alignment of Skyway 3 – the 40-meter San Juan Bridge, the 24-meter Concordia Bridge in Paco, Manila, and the 56.76-meter Sevilla Bridge in Mandaluyong City. These bridges had become unsafe for motorists due to old age.
Apart from decongesting major thoroughfares in the Metro, particularly EDSA, the completion of the Skyway Stage 3, which links the South Luzon Expressway and the North Luzon Expressway with eight key access points connecting Makati City, Manila, San Juan City, and Quezon City, paves the way in driving more economic activities for provinces in terms of trade and tourism.
What used to be a dreading drive to and from key cities and provinces surrounding the Metro has now become a convenient journey for motorists with the Skyway Stage 3. It lessens travel time from Alabang, Muntinlupa City to NLEX to 30 minutes, while traversing Buendia in Makati to NLEX will take only 15 minutes.
The Skyway Stage 3 project is just one of the major infrastructure initiatives in the pipeline for SMC. Under the leadership of Ramon S. Ang, the firm, which has established itself as a household name for Filipinos, is also behind the upcoming construction of the 19-kilometer elevated Pasig River Expressway that will connect Manila to Rizal, and the establishment of the Manila International Airport in Bulacan which is poised to become the country’s largest modern airport.
The Pasig River Expressway is slated to be completed in 2023 while the Manila International Airport is targeted to finish construction by 2024.
