Skyway Stage 2 traffic manager, Skyway O&M Corporation (SOMCO), announced that all the lanes at the South Station Exit Plaza will be closed to traffic starting 10:00 pm of March 3 to give way to further construction work on the Alabang on/off ramps. The temporary closure of the South Station Exit Plaza, expected to last a month, will also allow Stage 2 contactor DM Consunji Inc. (DMCI) to start road widening activities on both sides of the exit plaza.

Motorists bound for Alabang and Las Piñas have to exit at the Filinvest toll plaza, which reopened to traffic on September 18, 2009,  or the Alabang toll plaza, where two additional lanes were opened to traffic in September 2009. Anticipating an increase in the volume of vehicles in these plazas, SOMCO Head of Special Operations and Projects Ed Nepomuceno said that ambulant tellers and additional traffic enforcers will be deployed to serve and assist motorists.

SOMCO and project developer Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corporation (CMMTC) enjoin motorists to cooperate with this traffic adjustment, to allow DMCI to speed up its work and to finish the construction of Skyway Stage 2, hopefully, ahead of the May 2011 target schedule.

The Skyway Stage 2 project, which involves the extension of the Skyway System's elevated toll road from Bicutan to Alabang, is now 39.93% finished, ahead by 1.31% of the target accomplishment of 38.62% as of February 25. According to official figures released by CMMTC, 588 of the 644 required bored piles and 188 of the 223 required columns are now done. One hundred ten of the 181 pierheads needed had been cast, 78 of which had been rotated. Eight hundred twenty girders out of the required 1,849 had been fabricated, 765 of which had been installed on 82 spans. Twenty-two spans of the required 238 spans that will make up the Skyway Stage 2 superstructure now have complete deck slab support.

For the month of March, DMCI will continue work on pierhead concreting and rotation, girder fabrication and launching, and deck slab support installation for the elevated road superstructure.

With most of the right-of-way requirements already served, construction of the Sucat ramp to Dr. A. Santos Avenue has already started. Demolition of structures that could impede work progress as well as road widening in the area are in progress. DMCI is also working on bored piles for the Sucat Ramp on the sidewalk of the West Service Road, 400 meters away from the Sucat Southbound exit. This will be followed by pile cap installation. Because of this, SOMCO and CMMTC are also implementing a Stop-and-Go traffic scheme in the area. (www.aava.ph, March 06, 2010)