MMDA, DPWH to begin rehabilitation of Magallanes Interchange on Friday night

Magallanes Interchange along MRT tracks. Wikipedia photo

MANILA — Top officials of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will meet on Thursday to finalize the rehabilitation of the Magallanes Interchange in Makati City.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the two agencies earlier decided to begin the rehabilitation of the 39-year-old interchange on Friday night, May 30.

The Magallanes Interchange is a four-level flyover that serves as a junction between the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and Epifanio Delos Santos Ave. (EDSA).

The repair works include asphalt overlay of the third-level flyover (along EDSA) and second-level interchange from abutment to abutment, removal and replacement of damaged expansion dam and strengthening/retrofitting of the deck slab (soffit) of the second-level interchange and the inner lane of the third-level flyover (Pasay-bound).

Tolentino requested for a compressed work schedule after DPWH officials informed him that the project would now take eight months to complete, the work will be done in five stages and will only be undertaken from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The MMDA chief reminded the DPWH that construction equipment should be removed from the construction area by 5 a.m. or these will be towed away by the MMDA.

Tolentino also requested that the DPWH install the needed safety equipment at the work site, including safety railings, downspouts and fire escape ladders.

The DPWH intends to retrofit, repair and replace the asphalt overlay on the four-level partial turbine interchange in Makati City that serves as the junction between the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and EDSA.

According to the DPWH, Stage 1 (Manila to SLEX) would take 45 days to complete; Stage 2 (Cubao to Roxas Blvd.), 75 days; Stage 3 (SLEX to Cubao/Munumento), 30 days; Stage 4 (Cubao to Manila/SLEX), 30 days; and Stage 5 (Roxas Blvd. to Monumento), 60 days.

The DPWH also assured the MMDA that they would help direct traffic in the affected portions of the interchange by fielding 30 flagmen.

The repair of the Magallanes Interchange would include the replacement of railings, steel expansion joints, retrofitting against earthquakes and replacement of the asphalt overlay on its decks.

Earlier, DPWH-National Capital Region Director Reynaldo Tagudando said the last retrofit of the Magallanes Interchange was done in the 1980s.

Tagudando said there is damage on the carriageways, disintegration of concrete and damage on the guide rails and steel expansion joints of the interchange. All of these need immediate repair, he added.

Following the proposal in 1969 by then President Ferdinand Marcos to create six circumferential roads in Metro Manila, the Magallanes Interchange was opened in 1975 to extend EDSA to Roxas Blvd. in Pasay City.