Public-private partnership center in Philipines has announced that completion of major road projects which are expected to alleviate the worsening traffic conditions in Metro Manila will be pushed back due to the enhanced community quarantine being implemented in Luzon. The infrastructure arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said work is suspended for all its infrastructure projects, including two major ones that are scheduled for completion in 2020, such as the Skyway Extension and the Skyway Stage 3 projects. 

Set for completion originally by December 2020, the Skyway Extension project will add two lanes going north for a total of five northbound lanes, and three lanes going south for a total of four southbound lanes. It will provide motorists a direct connection to Skyway 1 and 2 and Skyway 3, which is also under construction.

The Skyway Stage 3 project, which would reduce travel time to and from Buendia and Balintawak to only 15 minutes, was originally targeted to open by April 2020.

Prior to the announcement of the community quarantine, the project was targeted to open by July 2020.

“All timetables now will be offset with this quarantine,” SMC Tollways president Manny Bonoan told The STAR. 

Bonoan, however, said it is hard to assume at the moment if the ongoing month-long quarantine would only result in a corresponding one month delay in the completion of these projects. “I don’t know if it is one month only because workers will need momentum. I’m sure SMC will make an announcement of new the timetables,” he said.