DPWH looking for new technology to shorten EDSA rehab

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is planning to employ a new construction method to shorten the rehabilitation of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfare.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB on Saturday, DPWH-National Capital Region Director Engr. Loreta Malaluan said the DPWH, in coordination with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr), is exploring “available road materials, procedures, and technologies that can be adapted to facilitate the implementation of the EDSA Rehabilitation Program in the shortest possible time.”

This was in accordance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to shorten the rehabilitation of EDSA from the original two years to at least six months to about a year.

Last month, Marcos suspended the EDSA rehabilitation initiative that was supposed to begin on June 13, as the project needs to be studied for one month to know if there are new technologies that can be used to hasten the rehabilitation of the 23.8-kilometer road.

“This new technology is expected not just to expedite the construction schedule but also to improve the overall pavement condition,” Malaluan said.

In the original plan, EDSA would be reconstructed lane-by-lane, with each being replaced by a new road.

The DPWH is now studying the “time and motion” process where a layer would be placed above the surface of EDSA.

In the dzBB interview, Malaluan explained that the new method being studied would no longer involve total removal of the pavement but would only “correct” the road’s base using concrete and asphalt.

She also said that the new method would also reduce the cost of the project.

The whole project would cost between P8 billion and P17 billion.

DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan, in an exclusive report by Joseph Morong on “24 Oras” on Thursday, said that the road’s rehabilitation and the consequent implementation of the odd-even scheme will only begin in 2026 as “it is already the rainy season in the country, which will be followed by the Christmas rush during the ‘Ber’ months.” —VBL, GMA Integrated News