The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has reaffirmed its commitment to provide infrastructure support to the supply chain and logistics sector in view of the industry’s key role in economic recovery.
“In this modern world, economic growth is impossible to achieve without supply chain and logistics,” said DPWH Undersecretary for Planning and Public-Private Partnership Service Dr. Maria Catalina E. Cabral in a recent webinar. She added that it is especially important to secure and strengthen the country’s supply chains in this time of crisis “in order for us to survive together from this challenge and be able to bounce back.”
“That’s why we in the DPWH commit to completing and delivering to our people the core mandates, particularly on the national roads and bridges, major flood control programs, and disaster risk resilience programs.”
Cabral, in her presentation in the UPPAF SCAn Network Hubs E-Forum, highlighted the major DPWH programs and projects that are aimed at supporting the supply chain and logistics market.
These include the ongoing Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, or TRIP. Conducted with the Department of Tourism, TRIP develops access roads to tourism destinations to contribute to inclusive growth and economic enterprise development.
Latest data show that 1,950 kilometers of tourism roads have been completed thus far, according to Cabral. The Agri-Infrastructure Support Program is being undertaken with the Department of Agriculture, in which road networks are built and improved to service farmers in the countryside to ensure food security.
As of May this year, 1,540 kilometers of farm-to-market roads have been completed. These include the P5.67-million Imelda-San Antonio Farm to Market Road in Pudtol, Apayao, which was completed last March.
The Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT) program, meanwhile, is a joint endeavor with the Department of Trade and Industry. It sets out to provide better road infrastructure in the countryside to disperse industries to the rural areas for a more balanced development.
So far, there are 437 kilometers of completed roads leading to industries, trade corridors, and economic zones, noted Cabral. The Integrated and Seamless Transport System aims to link the various islands of the country by building inter-island linkages/mega bridges, roads leading to the growth corridors in Western Mindanao and the Mindanao Logistics Infrastructure Network.
An example of this mega bridge is the 3-kilometer Panguil Bay Bridge, which has a project cost of P7.4 billion and is slated to start construction later this year, or early next year. Once completed, the bridge will connect the City of Tangub in Misamis Occidental to the Municipality of Tubod in Lanao del Norte. As for Metro Manila, the DPWH is currently implementing the Traffic Decongestion Program to reduce road bottlenecks and facilitate movement of people and goods, with the plan to build high-standard highways and expressways, bypass/diversion roads, flyovers, interchanges and underpasses, and to widen national roads and bridges.
But the DPWH’s flagship project is the Philippine High Standard Highway Network Program, which envisions the construction of 1,066 kilometers of high-standard highways across the country, said Cabral.
It has three components: the Cebu High Standard Highway Network, Davao High Standard Highway Network and Luzon Spine Expressway Network. Construction works for Cebu include the Metro Cebu Expressway, Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, and the Cebu-Mactan Bridge. In Mindanao, lined up are the Davao City By-Pass Construction Project, Davao City Expressway, and Davao City Coastal Road.
For Luzon, DPWH is implementing the Luzon Spine Expressway Network Program, which targets building a total of 905 kilometers of high-standard highways and expressways from north to south. This priority program will reduce travel time from Ilocos to Bicol from 20 to 24 hours to just about nine to 10 hours once completed, said Cabral.
Over the last four years, Cabral said the agency has completed over 23,600 kilometers of roads that were constructed, maintained, widened, upgraded and rehabilitated and more than 4,900 bridges that were constructed, widened, upgraded, rehabilitated and strengthened.
Image credits: DPWH