San Miguel Corporation (SMC) will soft-open the entire 18-km newly-completed and much-anticipated Skyway 3 expressway in December, as its president and chief operating officer, Ramon S. Ang, announced that it will be open for free to all motorists for an entire month.
For over a year now, SMC also partially opened for public use the Buendia to Plaza Dilao section of Skyway 3. It has remained open and free to date for use by the public without any toll fees.
In a statement, Ang said the company was confident that it would be able to open Skyway 3 by December. This, despite continuous rains hampering finishing works, including the laying and proper curing of asphalt. He also committed that for the first month, motorists can use the entire 18-kilometer length of Skyway 3 from Buendia to NLEX for free.
“We’re very proud and excited about this project, because it will truly make a big difference to so many people’s lives--especially with our economy slowly opening up and with more vehicles coming back to our roads,” Ang said.
“While we’re still doing a few finishing works, we want the public to be able to use Skyway 3 already and benefit from the convenience and ease of travel that it will bring. We have all waited long for this project, so this is the best way we can welcome everyone, by making Skyway 3 free for one month,” he added.
The project, which took a total of six years to complete due to numerous challenges, including right-of-way issues and major changes to its design and alignment, is seen to greatly improve travel times and traffic conditions in and around Metro Manila.
Seamlessly connecting the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) with the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), it will also serve as an alternative to EDSA, with its eight access points that traverse Makati, Manila, San Juan, and Quezon City.
These access points include Buendia, Plaza Dilao, Nagtahan, Aurora Blvd., Quezon Ave., Sgt. Rivera, Balintawak, and NLEX.
Ang also thanked all stakeholders and government partners past and present, for their contributions to making the vision that was Skyway 3, a reality. Privately funded and built by SMC, Skyway 3 was completed at no cost to government, with also no guarantees or subsidies.
Ang emphasized its many long-term benefits to motorists and the economy:
“With Skyway 3, we will improve the daily commutes and lives of so many Filipinos. We will lessen their time spent in traffic on the road, we can increase both their productivity and time spent with their families,” Ang said.
“Apart from this, the transportation of goods from north and south Luzon will also be so much easier, faster, and more efficient. This will be a big boost to our economy and support growth throughout the regions,” he added.
After completing the entire structure of Skyway 3 ahead of its October 31 deadline, SMC also earlier announced that it was targeting to deliver the northbound section of the Skyway extension project, which connect SLEX directly to Skyway from Susanna Heights in Muntinlupa, by December.
With this, travel from Susanna Heights through the Skyway System including Skyway 3, all the way to the Balintawak toll plaza of the NLEX, will only take 20 minutes, Ang said. Meanwhile, travel time from Magallanes to Balintawak will be just 15 minutes; Balintawak to NAIA will be just 15 minutes, and Valenzuela to Makati will only take 10 minutes.
Thank you very much Mr Ramon Ang and God bless you, your family and your companies always! Be a legacy in the prosperity of our country, the Philippines
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that his company is really thinking about the prosperity of our country at all, specially to the way they are handling the so called extension projects that they are doing. The thing is they are continuously charging us with the same amount of fee for a very poor service. Let's just take the SLEX have you experienced driving there any time of the day? I mean not just rush hours but basically anytime of any day of the week you will experience heavy traffic and yet they continue to charge us with the same amount of toll fee even though they are not giving us the proper services that we are paying for.
ReplyDeleteThen there's this thing about they're policy that if you don't have the back-up plastic card for the RFID Sticker and their toll gate machine malfunction and could not read the front sticker, the teller would charge you not with the fee from where you started your entry, but for the whole SKYWAY Toll Fee, from where it starts up to where you exit. So what kind / type of extortion is that, huh? First of all it's not my fault that their toll gate failed at reading the stickers that they themselves have provided us. And my account is on auto debit from my credit card so basically it will not fail to have sufficient funds, right? I mean my entry point was just from Southwoods to Sta Rosa Laguna then when I pass their toll gate and it did not read my RFID sticker they told me I have to pay P221 since they charge me for the whole trip from Skyway entry to Sta Rosa. Well do you think that's fair?
I mean all their policies is for their own advantage, coz if their machine fails to read your sticker and you can't produce the back-up plastic card for whatever reason, then they have the right to charge you for the whole amount of the SKYWAY FEE even though you did not use it. Don't they have an integrated system where they can track your car by just taking your plate no. or your induction sticker where they included with your RFID registration and check their system if what the driver was telling them is true or not? coz you cannot enter SLEX toll gate if the RFID Sticker did not function upon your entry in the first place, right?
So be careful people for this new scam, coz you'll never know which toll gate they will manipulate and maybe they will tell you that your sticker is unreadable or you have no record where you started your entry then wallah instant SKYWAY Fee for them hehehe!
I don't believe that his company is really thinking about the prosperity of our country at all, specially to the way they are handling the so called extension projects that they are doing. The thing is they are continuously charging us with the same amount of fee for a very poor service. Let's just take the SLEX have you experienced driving there any time of the day? I mean not just rush hours but basically anytime of any day of the week you will experience heavy traffic and yet they continue to charge us with the same amount of toll fee even though they are not giving us the proper services that we are paying for.
ReplyDeleteThen there's this thing about they're policy that if you don't have the back-up plastic card for the RFID Sticker and their toll gate machine malfunction and could not read the front sticker, the teller would charge you not with the fee from where you started your entry, but for the whole SKYWAY Toll Fee, from where it starts up to where you exit. So what kind / type of extortion is that, huh? First of all it's not my fault that their toll gate failed at reading the stickers that they themselves have provided us. And my account is on auto debit from my credit card so basically it will not fail to have sufficient funds, right? I mean my entry point was just from Southwoods to Sta Rosa Laguna then when I pass their toll gate and it did not read my RFID sticker they told me I have to pay P221 since they charge me for the whole trip from Skyway entry to Sta Rosa. Well do you think that's fair?
I mean all their policies is for their own advantage, coz if their machine fails to read your sticker and you can't produce the back-up plastic card for whatever reason, then they have the right to charge you for the whole amount of the SKYWAY FEE even though you did not use it. Don't they have an integrated system where they can track your car by just taking your plate no. or your induction sticker where they included with your RFID registration and check their system if what the driver was telling them is true or not? coz you cannot enter SLEX toll gate if the RFID Sticker did not function upon your entry in the first place, right?
So be careful people for this new scam, coz you'll never know which toll gate they will manipulate and maybe they will tell you that your sticker is unreadable or you have no record where you started your entry then wallah instant SKYWAY Fee for them hehehe!