Skip to main content

Head of San Miguel moots a Philippines bridge project in Boracay

The president of infrastructure group San Miguel has mooted that a 2km toll bridge be built to connect the small island holiday resort of Boracay with the Larger Panay Island. Boracay - just over 10km2 - is an increasingly popular international tourist destination around 315km south of the Philippine capital Manila and 2km off the northwest tip of Panay in Western Visayas island group. The island is blessed with exceptionally white sand beaches and is administered by the Philippine Tourism Authority and
June 8, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The president of infrastructure group San Miguel has mooted that a 2km toll bridge be built to connect the small island holiday resort of Boracay with the Larger Panay Island.

Boracay - just over 10km2 - is an increasingly popular international tourist destination around 315km south of the Philippine capital Manila and 2km off the northwest tip of Panay in Western Visayas island group. The island is blessed with exceptionally white sand beaches and is administered by the Philippine Tourism Authority and the provincial government of Aklan.

The bridge would run from the town of Caticlan to Boracay, said San Miguel president Ramon Ang in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. The cost would be around US$100 million, he reportedly said.

“We proposed the idea to them [local authority]…,” said Ang. Tourism would be greatly boosted for both islands because a road would mean people headed for Boracay could stay in Caticlan overnight and not have to choose between one island and the other.

“We think what’s best is if everybody could stay and eat in Caticlan and go to Boracay to enjoy the beach,” Ang said.

Caticlan airport has recently been upgraded to accommodate the largest of jets.

San Miguel is one of the largest Philippines corporations, focused mainly on food but is branching out into infrastructure, power, mining and general construction work.

Earlier this year, the Philippines government said it might separate a 47km six-lane road construction element near Manila from a complicated land reclamation and dike development contract recently shunned by preferred bidders.

San Miguel Holdings was among the pre-qualified consortia. Others were Trident Infrastructure and Development consortium – consisting of SM Prime Holdings, Megaworld, Ayala Land and Aboitiz Equity Ventures – and the Alloy-PAVI LLEDP consortium.

None of the three qualified bidders for the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike public-private partnership deal submitted final bids for the contract. There were concerns over the legality of reclaiming 700 ha of land and whether investors could make money from it.

Related Content

  • Five consortia interested in Romania’s Pitesti-Craiova highway project
    May 10, 2013
    The Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has revealed that five consortia have entered bids to land the contract for the construction of the €2.08 billion (RON 9bn) 121km Pitesti-Craiova highway. The deadline for the submission of bids was 8 May 2013. Offers were submitted by a consortium formed by Romanian companies such as Spedition UMB, Tehnostrade and Vectra Service. The other four consortia that filed bids are: Obrascon Huarte Lain/OHL ZS (Spain), China Communications Construction Company/Dogus Insaat
  • Kenya rehabilitates, widens, tolls Northern Corridor
    November 8, 2017
    A massive highway project in Kenya will boost transport for the country as well as its neighbours - Shem Oirere reports. Kenya has commenced the process of rehabilitating, expanding and tolling of 657km of East Africa’s Northern Corridor that is anchored on the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and which links the gateway with landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
  • Replace bridge for Vancouver’s Massey Tunnel could aid congestion
    December 21, 2015
    Opponents of a proposed 10-lane bridge near Vancouver, Canada, said the structure will encourage urban sprawl in a region that is already struggling with a booming population. The British Columbia provincial government recently opened the final round of public consultation for the planned 3.3km toll bridge likely to cost around US$2.54 billion.
  • A6 project between Weinsberg and Wiesloch/Rauenberg set to start
    January 26, 2017
    Work will soon start on the €1.3 billion project to widen a stretch of the A6 motorway, one of Germany’s most congested highways. Both sides of the motorway between the Weinsberg and Wiesloch/Rauenberg junctions will be expanded. On 25 km of the section being expanded under the project – altogether 47.1 km – the number of lanes will be increased from four to six. The project also encompasses the construction of the 1.3km-long Neckartal Bridge. Preparatory work for the public-private partnership has