DPWH: Skyway Stage 3 to open before end-2020

The Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, linking northern and southern Luzon, will be open to motorists before the year ends, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said Wednesday.

"End to end, the whole Skyway is complete—substantially completed. At this point, we're just working on the safety asphalt, we're working with our concessionaire San Miguel," Villar said during the Senate deliberation on the DPWH's proposed P666.47 billion budget for 2021.

"Definitely, before the end of the year we can expect that it will be open. Very soon, we'll all be able to enjoy the connection from NLEX and SLEX," he added.

The opening would happen in December at the latest, according to Villar.

On Tuesday, San Miguel Corporation announced that the 17.93-kilometer Skyway Stage 3 has been completed ahead of the original October 31 target.

In using Skyway Stage 3, travel from SLEX to NLEX will now only take 20 minutes, from around three hours previously.

Magallanes to Balintawak will only take about 15 minutes, Balintawak to Ninoy Aquino International Airport will be only 15 minutes, and Valenzuela to Makati in just 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Connector Road is still being constructed.

"The Skyway we'll be able to use this year, the Connector probably before the end of the term... Perhaps in a year and a half maybe we'll be able to utilize a significant portion of it," Villar said.

The completion of these thoroughfares will help decongest EDSA, claimed the DPWH chief. — BM, GMA News