CIVIL works on the Bohol-Cebu Friendship Bridge (BCFB) may start in 2020.
This was the Valentine’s Day gift of National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Rolando G. Tungpalan to Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of the (Second District of Bohol).
During his visit to Tungpalan’s office to follow up on the funding for the bridge, the latter informed him the project’s feasibility study (FS) would be funded with a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Aumentado said that according to Tungpalan, the FS is slated to start this year—for completion in six months to 10 months. If feasible, he added, the bidding may be scheduled in 2019 and the construction, if viable, in 2020.
Aumentado said he is confident the bridge would be feasible due to the several pre-feasibility studies and consultations conducted during the incumbency as governor of his namesake father and immediate congressional predecessor Erico Boyles Aumentado.
The BCFB, as his father envisioned, will be a 24-kilometer series of bridges and causeways that will link Getafe in Bohol with Cordova in Cebu. It will have several exits along the way to several islands between the two provinces.
The senior Aumentado had nicknamed the structure a “three-in-one” bridge, as it will also carry cables that will bring more electricity from Cebu province to Bohol. At the same time, a pipeline will straddle it to bring potable water from Bohol to Cebu.
Lately, former Cordova mayor, Secretary Adelino Sitoy, also introduced studies conducted by his consultants incorporating a railway component into the bridge. This would bolster the string of endorsements the bridge has so far earned.
Sitoy is now the Presidential Adviser on Legislative Affairs and the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The solon said the BCFB has “a soft spot in his heart” because it recognizes the efforts of his father. The elder Aumentado had the project endorsed by the Provincial Development Council, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and the Central Visayas Regional Development Council.
The study will comprise pre-engineering work to be the basis for the preparation of the detailed engineering design.
“I will see to it this dream of my father will see fruition,” the son vowed.
At the same time, he expressed gratitude to Tungpalan, President Duterte, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr. and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia for their support.
2 comments
Please change the headline. It is very misleading. Target construction is 2020, not completion. The project’s feasibility study has not even started yet.
I heard from a reliable source (friend of a prominent politician in Bohol) that this project is “on hold”….again…..indefinitely. So in short, we may never see it happen. After president Duterte’s term, projects in Visayas and Mindanao will again be bypassed as people have already gone enamored by the antics of Isko Moreno.
Kawawa talaga mga Bisaya. While Luzon is looking at another Php700 billion in infrastructure projects, the iconic dream of many Cebuanos and Boholanos will again be held, or worse, cancelled.