These 4 Big road projects will add traffic congestion in Metro Manila

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File photo: A portion of C-5 somewhere in Pasig City. Small roadway always in a bottleneck of traffic.

Study shows that for a mega-city comparable to Metro Manila, 25 percent of the total land area should be allotted for roads which should be 8,000 kilometers. But based on Metro Manila Development Authority’s records, the National Capital Region has only 5,000 kilometers of road network, way far from the ideal number.

The metro agency reported that vehicular volume remains a problem in the region. The increasing number of private vehicles remain the major cause of monstrous traffic gridlock along the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA, previously known as Highway 54) is 6,000 vehicles one direction per hour but right now it is at 6,800 with an overcapacity of 800.

About 90 percent of vehicles using EDSA are private cars. This traffic problem is being compounded by the fact that about 6,000 private cars are being sold every month and join the usage of metro roads.

To ease the problem, there is the system implementation of metrowide Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, more commonly known as the number coding scheme, with certain vehicles being prohibited from major roads from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., depending on the last digit of license plates. But the scheme is only palliative and never cease to stop the traffic problem.

Now, the government is set to implement various road projects in a bid to address the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Tuesday.

MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have four big proposed projects to start this year namely the Lawton-Sta. Monica bridge in Pasig and Taguig; C5 Road to Julia Vargas flyover in Pasig City; Katipunan to C5 Road flyover and Miriam to Gate 3 of Ateneo De Manila University flyover, both in Quezon City.

The MMDA noted that during construction, these projects will worsen the traffic congestion in Metro Manila since an on-going road project, traffic in roads lead to a standstill.

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