MMDA: EDSA rehabilitation begins June 13

MAJOR REHAB SOON. Light to moderate traffic in EDSA, Cubao, Quezon City as photographed on Tuesday (May 20, 2025). The total rebuild of the 23.8-kilometer major thoroughfare will begin on June 13, according to the Department of Transportation. (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)

By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – A complete rebuild of the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) is set to begin on June 13, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Tuesday.

In an interview at the EDSA Busway’s Balintawak Station in Quezon City, MMDA Chair Romando Artes said the project is part of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s ‘Build, Better, More’ and would involve a massive information drive on the project’s schedules, plans, rerouting schemes, and other mitigating measures against traffic slowdown.

“Target date po ng start ay June 13. Yan yung actual na plano pong araw na magsisimula. Yung iba pa pong detalye, DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), sa aming pag-uusap, mga two years (The target start date is June 13. That’s the actual planned start date. Other details, based on our conversations with the DPWH, may take two years),” Artes said.

The EDSA rebuild was announced to begin sometime in the middle of June by Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Vince Dizon during an inspection of the EDSA Busway station’s elevators.

During the event, Dizon said the project would not be a standard rehabilitation project but a “total rebuild” of EDSA, since it has been 45 years since its last rehabilitation project.

“Total rebuild, babaguhin na natin ang EDSA. Mahirap siya habang ginagawa, ma-traffic, may perwisyo, pero kapag natapos ito, talagan napaka-laking ginhawa para sa mga kababayan (we’ll change EDSA. It will be hard during construction, there will be traffic, there will be inconvenience, but once it’s completed, it will be a massive boon to the people),” he said.

To help ease the burden on motorists who ply the major thoroughfare, he said the DOTr, as chair of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), will seek to open portions of the Skyway for free access.

Other project details are being finalized with other government agencies and other project partners.