MANILA – A project extending by an additional 1.3 kilometers the newly paved Laguna Lake Highway in Taguig, touted as the first highway in the Philippines to have a 3-meter wide space for bikers and joggers, has been completed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
With the addition, the Laguna Lake Highway is now 4.5 kms.
DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar and Transportation Secretary Art Tugade were joined in the opening of the additional new concrete paved segment by BCDA President Vince Dizon, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano and Taguig Representative Pia Cayetano, who tried out the bicycle lane.
“In a study by World Health Organization, 19% of those who die in road accidents in the Philippines are pedestrians,” Villar noted.
“In building the road network in the Philippines, it is important that we also put in place more pedestrian infrastructure. This will not only happen in Luzon but also in Visayas and Mindanao,” said Villar.
Villar stressed that DPWH would incorporate pedestrian infrastructure and green architecture in the creation of key infrastructure projects.
Costing P140.331 million, the 1.3-kilometer additional 2-lane road is constructed under the Phase II of Laguna Lake Highway Project which also covers provision for plant strip, sidewalk, turn out, and drainage works is in addition to about 3.2 kilometers concrete paved segment earlier completed.
The improved highway will ensure safety of motorists, bikers, pedestrians, as well as protection of residents from backflow of lakewater.
Linking towns of Rizal to the eastern corridor of Manila, the Laguna Lake Highway is essential to cope with the increasing traffic volume due to rapid increase of population and urbanization in the Metro.
Laguna Lake Highway is seen to give Taguig a new growth corridor and to increase the economy in the area as DPWH hopes to attract tourists with added healthy features like the bike lane.
Also ongoing is Phase III of the project covering an additional length of 4.3 kilometers which is expected to be finished by August of 2018.
