The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) hosted on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, another Contractor’s Outreach Program for the Bataan – Cavite Interlink Bridge (BCIB) Project.
The event held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City was led by DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain, which is also a pilot of the Department’s series of Bagong Pilipinas Townhall Meetings in line with the instruction of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan and other Cabinet members to conduct series of Town Hal Meetings to champion the administration’s brand of governance and leadership under the “Bagong Pilipinas”.
“Through this outreach initiative, we hope to further connect and promote information sharing with prospective local and foreign contractors of the upcoming BCIB Project which will be one of the world’s longest marine bridges, and strengthen partnerships in the construction industry,” said Senior Undersecretary Sadain.
Participants of the Bagong Pilipinas Townhall Meeting include major contractors from the country and around the world who are interested in joining the open competitive bidding for various stages of implementation of the inter-island bridge project that would connect Bataan and Cavite over Manila Bay.
Also present at the event are Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin of the Embassy of Denmark and Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines Dato’ Abdul Malik Melvin Castelino; ADB Country Director Pavit.
Ramachadran and Country Specialist Alain Morel; DPWH Undersecretaries Eric A. Ayapana and Ador G. Canlas; Project Director Sharif Madsmo H. Hasim and Project Manager Teresita V. Bauzon of DPWH Unified Project Management Office – Roads Management Cluster II (Multilateral); Commercial Specialist Bebe Montesines of Embassy of the United States of America in the Philippines; Office of the President – Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Director Sheryl Mundo; and other DPWH officials.
Highlighted during the program are the detailed discussions by the experts from T.Y. Lin International working on the project’s final detailed engineering design led by its Project Manager/Team Leader and company Senior Vice President Mr. Marwan Nader on the qualification requirements from contractors for the BCIB, potential issues and concerns, as well as procurement terms and conditions.
“Through this outreach initiative, we hope to further connect and promote information sharing with prospective local and foreign contractors of the upcoming BCIB Project, and strengthen partnerships in the construction industry,” said Senior Undersecretary Sadain.
The BCIB is envisioned as a 32.15-kilometer bridge that cut travel time between Bataan and Cavite from the current five (5) hours to just 45 minutes.
The construction of the project will be divided into seven (7) contract packages with the DPWH identifying initial on-land packages advertised for procurement on March 25, 2024 and target for award by third quarter of 2024 as the: five (5)-kilometer Bataan Land Approach under Package 1 and the 1.35-kilometer Cavite Land Approach under Package 2.
Other packages are the 20.65-kilometer Marine Viaducts in the North and South under Packages 3 and 4; and 2.15-kilometer North Channel Bridge for Package 5 and 3.15-kilometer South Channel Bridge for Package 6. The 7th package involves project-wide ancillary works with an eventual separate package 8 for the Operations and Maintenance.
The project, which is part of the Infrastructure Flagship Projects (IFPs) under the President Marcos, Jr. administration’s Build Better More program, is estimated to cost USD 3.91 billion (about PHP 219.31 billion).
Of this amount, USD 2.11 billion (about PHP 118.32 billion) will be financed by the ADB while USD 1.14 billion (about PHP 63.71 billion) is proposed to be co-financed by the AIIB. The remaining USD 664.23 million (about PHP 37.28 billion) will be funded by the Philippine government.
The BCIB project will be financed under a multi-tranche financing facility with the first tranche of the loan amounting to USD 650 million (around PHP 36.22 billion).
Succeeding tranches will be availed of in the duration of the project, subject to securing relevant government approvals for each subsequent loan tranche.
