From more than an hour, traveling between Cubao and Makati along EDSA will be cut down to five minutes, according to President Duterte.
In a report by The STAR, Duterte said that traffic situation along EDSA will soon improve by the end of the year.
“You just wait. Ayaw kong mag-ano. Things will improve. Maybe God willing, December smooth sailing na,” Duterte said.
“You don’t have to worry about traffic. Cubao and Makati will be just about five minutes na lang,” Duterte added.
Duterte said that he talked to Chinese President Xi Jinping on infrastructure projects under the Build Build Build program during the Belt and Road Forum in China.
Major infrastructure projects are underway to help reduce traffic in the metro, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways. Some of these are the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 (MMSS3) and the connector road project that will link North and South Luzon Expressways.
The MMSS3 viaduct that will connect the two expressways is projected to ease congestion along EDSA and other major roads in the Metro by as many as 50,000 vehicles, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority traffic czar Edison Nebrija said that although the volume of vehicles that daily cross the stretch of EDSA has not decreased, they “are up to the challenge” of cutting travel time from Cubao to Makati to five minutes.
Nebrija also said that the inter-agency Task Force Cub-Ma seeks to improve the traffic situation between Cubao in Quezon City and Chino Roces Avenue in Makati by assigning enforcers to all chokepoints. – With reporting from Edith Regalado and Ghio Ong/STAR