The Philippines is a country made up of 7,641 islands – a daunting prospect to many a traveller and one that has put people off from visiting the country. Social media and online forums are filled with concerns over how one might travel from one island to the next, especially when flights are involved.
Yet, the Filipino government has in recent decades embarked on a campaign of connecting the country’s islands — and some of the chopped-up pieces of mainland — through a series of huge construction projects.
The Bataan–Cavite Interlink Bridge is just one of them, a giant bridge that will cross the vast Manila Bay and connect the provinces of Bataan and Cavite.
Construction is expected to begin at some point this year and has already been approved by central authorities. Projections suggest the bridge will be finished by 2029.
The bridge will become the key missing link in the road network of the National Capital Region (NCR), Central Luzon, and Calabarzon.
It will span a staggering 32.15km (19 miles) long, comprise of two cable-stayed bridges for navigation channels, 24 km (14.9 miles) of marine viaducts, and 8 km (4.9 miles) of approach roads, and will be made up of four lanes.
For locals, it will cut journey times around the island’s interior by hours, and reduce what is today a 237 km (147 miles) journey from one side of the strait to the other by 204.8 km (128 miles), more than the distance from Birmingham to London.
On completion, the towns of Mariveles, Bataan and Naic, Cavite will be connected for the first time.
While it has taken until this year to get things underway, the bridge was initially proposed back in 1987.
Back then, representative Felicito Payumo suggested better transport links were needed to bridge the gap just outside Manila, the capital.
The project wouldn’t be given the green light until 2020 when the National Economic and Development Authority approved it with a budget of ₱175.7 billion (£2.4billion).
The same year, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) signed a $59 million (£46.9million) engineering design contract, awarded to the joint venture of T. Y. Lin International from the US and Korea’s Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd.
They are working with a Geneva-based company as well as a local engineering corporation.
When complete, the Bataan-Cavite Bridge will become one of the world’s longest marine bridges. Though the budget sits at ₱175.7 billion, estimates suggest that the costs will rise to ₱277 billion (£3.8 billion).
