THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is still eyeing the construction of an elevated walkway and bikeway along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) to help ease traffic congestion in the metropolis’ busiest thoroughfare.
MMDA Chair Romando Artes said they already have a design for the structure but added it will need additional fine tuning.
Artes added the agency still has to look for funding, which he said is “substantial.”
“We already have the design but we don’t have the specific date yet when it will be started. The budget for it is also substantial,” he said.
Artes said an initial plan is for the elevated walkway and bikeway to be constructed from Guadalupe in Makati City to Cubao, Quezon City.
He said this will help ease traffic congestion along EDSA since those who are going only on short destinations need not bring their vehicles and instead either walk or bike their way.
“Instead of them lining up at bus stations and MRT stations, they can just walk and bike their way, especially if they are going only on short destinations,” he said.
Artes said the cement and steel elevated walkway and bikeway will come equipped with ramps to give bikers easy access.
He said it would be made easily accessible to pedestrians, especially the elderly, pregnant women, children and persons with disabilities. The walkway and bikeway would also be well-lit, he added.
The plan for such a structure along EDSA is not new. As early as 2019, then Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri urged the MMDA to start the project, saying such infrastructure for pedestrians will help to decongest EDSA.
Zubiri said the first phase of the elevated walkway should connect Ortigas in Pasig City to the Makati Central Business District.
He said the Department of Public Works and Highways estimated the project to cost around P7 billion.
In 2020, the Asian Development Bank said it has approved the P5.9 billion loan for the EDSA Greenways Project of the Department of Transportation that seeks to build a total of five kilometers of covered and elevated walkways near the MRT and LRT stations in Balintawak, Cubao, Guadalupe and Taft.
The construction of such pedestrian infrastructure, according to Artes, is part of the overall policy of the government to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis.
He said part of the policy is also the construction of subways and the upgrading of existing MRT and LRT mass transit systems.
The MMDA earlier said it expects the average daily traffic along EDSA to rise by as much as 430,000 due to the Christmas rush.
A study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency estimated the metropolis’ traffic problems costs the economy some P3.5 billion per day prior to the pandemic.
