The Philippines’ Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has completed about 1.3 km of tunnel civil works for the 2.3 km road mountain tunnel being built in Davao City, surpassing the halfway point of the project.
This tunnel construction is part of the contract package 1-1 of the Davao City Bypass project, which has been awarded to the Shimizu-Ulticon-Takenaka joint venture. DPWH said the contractor is currently working on northbound and southbound directions at both ends of the tunnel’s north and south portals.
When completed, the new 2.3 km double-lane, twin-tube tunnel will be the first-ever long-distance mountain tunnel in the Philippines. It forms the central portion of the Davao City Bypass project. The tunnel’s two ends at each of the portals are targeted to break through by February 2024.
According to DPWH, the lengths of the excavated tunnels on northbound and southbound directions of the north portal are now 625 m and 676 m respectively, while accomplishments at the south portal are 678 m northbound and 620 m southbound.
The on-going tunnelling works on both southbound and northbound directions involve tunnel excavation, shotcrete works for excavation face, installation of steel ribs, wiremesh and final shotcrete, drilling and installation of rockbolts, added DPWH.
The Davao City Bypass project, which will be 45.5 km long, is among the infrastructure flagship projects started under the previous administration’s ‘Build Build Build’ programme and continue under the new administration’s ‘Build Better More’ development agenda to ease traffic and reduce travel time.
The contract package 1-1 totalling PHP13.23 billion is financed by Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) loan between the Philippine government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Besides the 10-m-wide and 8-m-high twin tunnels, the contract package 1-1 also includes the construction of a 7.90 km four-lane road, three pairs of bridge with a total length of 500 m, two underpasses, two overpasses, 12 box culverts (waterways), and four at-grade road crossings.
Image: DPWH
