A new meaning for PPPs? (1)

THE SIMPLEST IDEAS are sometimes the most effective. Recently, the MMDA moved the Fort-bound U-turn under the EDSA-Buendia flyover one slot forward, resulting in smoother traffic transitions on the EDSA-Guadalupe-bound lane.

Meantime, the march of LEDs continues as TMC, the operator of the NLEx, has converted the lighting masts from the Balintawak to Balagtas segment to all LED, enhancing the highway’s all-weather safety. With road illumination now on par with China and Europe’s latest expressways, areas that still do not have road illumination, like the Balagtas to Sta. Rita segment where there is also no high concrete median barrier, should at least have median anti-glare barriers. For that matter, anti-glare barriers were once promised for the MATES-managed SLEx from Alabang to Sto. Tomas.

Even as the administration’s focus is sidelined by the elections, many line departments are continuing with the task of trying to fulfill the Noynoy Aquino’s dream of finishing his term as the PPP president. But despite the glowing reports on foreign investment and the hyper-optimism of local businessmen, the 2013 IMF country report states that our growth is still “non-inclusive”; i.e. in layman’s terms, the growth doesn’t translate to the masses, which has been lucidly explained by UP professor Benjamin Diokno. This is backstopped by the 2013 World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report where our country is at the bottom rung in terms of power, land, sea and air transportation. Could this be because of the snail’s pace of infrastructure since 2010?

Catching up on infrastructure in the busy metro, improvement of drainage, footbridges and lane alignments on the Quezon City segment of C-5 -- the only workable north-south alternative to EDSA -- are also in preparation when north-south traffic increases when Tandang Sora at Commonwealth is fully widened. The timing could only be prescient just as EDSA is to receive an end-to-end full asphalt overlay, plus the impending construction of the roller coaster skyway from Malibay to Roxas Boulevard on EDSA.

The government has all but awarded the NAIA Skyway Stage 2 to Entertainment City by the Bay PPP to San Miguel’s Optimal Infrastructure.

This is the second highway awarded under the program in the three years of the Aquino administration. Most of the bidding for the LRT and MRT related upgrades, meanwhile, have been postponed several times over.

Up north, the BCDA continues paying interest for the loan that built the SCTEx as the Palace hasn’t okayed the turnover of the SCTEx to Metro Pacific Tollways, which will take over debt servicing and integrate SCTEx operations and expenses as it runs the NLEx. Metro Pacific Tollways has submitted a 4^th revised offer -- the contract, mind, was approved in 2009.

source:  Businessworld Column of Not So Fast by Tito F. Hermoso