WITH the threat of a catastrophic earthquake hitting the Philippines a certainty albeit with an uncertain timeline, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is stepping up its program to strengthen key bridges—starting with Guadalupe Bridge in Mandaluyong—in the Philippines to withstand temblors of up to magnitude 8.
Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said his group has created a rehabilitation plan for the Guadalupe Bridge—a critical portion of Edsa that connects the cities of Makati and Mandaluyong—to prepare it for the so-called Big One.
“There’s a need to rehabilitate Guadalupe Bridge given the possibility of the Big One happening in Metro Manila. Now, we realize that there is concern [over] traffic, so when we made the plans for the rehabilitation, part of the plan is to construct service lanes on each side,” he told journalists from the ALC Media Group at the BusinessMirror Coffee Club on Tuesday.
He explained that the service lanes will ensure that traffic will continue to flow while the bridge undergoes rehabilitation, adding that the plan is to also speed up rehabilitating other bridges that span the Pasig River in order to provide alternative routes for motorists opting not to use the expectedly narrower service lanes.
“There’s no scenario where we will close Guadalupe Bridge. Guadalupe is really critical, but we understand that closing Guadalupe will cause a carmageddon. It really needs to be done and we have to do it soon,” Villar said.
Once completed, Guadalupe Bridge, he said, will be able to endure quakes of huge magnitudes.
To mitigate the traffic congestion that the rehabilitation program may cause, Villar said his group is banking on the completion of two other bridges that connect the cities of Makati and Mandaluyong.
“We’re trying to push towardsthe end of next year [to] also finish the two bridges crossing Pasig River, which are Estrella-Pantaleon, and Santa Monica-Lawton so that they will also minimize the effect when we rehab Guadalupe,” he said.
The Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge connects Mandaluyong and Makati through a two-lane truss structure that crosses the Pasig River. The existing bridge is currently being replaced by a prestressed concrete rigid frame bridge with corrugated steel webs with a four-lane concrete deck slab of approximately 506.46 lineal meters.
On the other hand, the Santa Monica-Lawton Bridge is a 613.77-meter, four-lane bridge across Pasig River connecting Lawton Avenue in Makati City and Santa Monica Street in Pasig City.
“No one knows when the Big One will happen, but we have to be prepared. We have to make sure that all our bridges can withstand at least an eight-level earthquake,” Villar explained.
The Big One, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), will be a catastrophic quake that will be caused by delayed surface-rupturing events of active faults.