Here are the 10 Most Amazing Bridges in the Philippines
- Agas Agas Bridge
Agas-Agas is one of the highest and fantastic top bridge in the Philippines. The new Agas-Agas Bridge crosses a profound valley in the Eastern Visayas area of the country. As part of the Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway Rehabilitation Project, the Fund of this bridge was given by the Japan International Cooperation Agency as part of the Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway Rehabilitation Project.
The Agas-Agas Bridge has a large prestressed concrete beam, 246 feet (75 meters), and 241 foot (73.5 meters) high piers.
The Agas-Agas Bridge’s attractive location encouraged the highway department to construct a looking Adeck on top of one of the piers in the middle of the bridge. Also, build parking areas on both sides with ease rooms to rest. Upcoming ideas contain the chance of a bungee jump operation from the span.
On the Pan-Philippine Highway, the Agas-Agas Bridge is a prestressed concrete beam bridge, which is ₱1.024-billion Bridge. It was funded partially by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The length of the Agas-Agas Bridge is about 350 meters (1,150 feet), and the height is 89 meters (292 feet) above ground. The center span of the bridge has a length of 177 meters (581 feet), which is sustained by two piers of 75 meters (246 feet) and 73 meters (240 feet) from the ground.
In Southern Leyte, the hilly areas of the Agas-Agas section of the Pan-Philippine Highway are susceptible to landslides in heavy rains. And considerably more when a typhoon hits the province of the country. The construction of the bridge was completed in 2006 to evade the troublesome section and chop down drivers’ driving time.
You can also see its high tourism potential of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) submitted to President Gloria Arroyo. The arrangement to transform the bridge into a safe house for fans of downhill skateboarding, bungee jumping, paramotor, zipline, rappelling, and other exciting sports. The construction of the bungee jumping platform was signed by the president on August 9, 2009, along the bridge and other tourism services.
Nowadays, the Agas-Agas Bridge zip line is known as “Zipline Leyte.” It was opened in April 2011. The twin zipline is one of the longest in the country at 880 meters (2,890 ft), slides diagonally overhead the bridge, and the riverine underneath it. A Local Pavilion accomplished with food and a parking lot. The construction Souvenir kiosks have done on a promontory overlooking the deep ravine of the near to gorge. The Agas Agas Bridge also has tourist pavilion, food huts, and an ample parking space.
2. Buntun Bridge
Buntun Bridge is a river bridge that extends from the City of Tuguegarao to Solana in Cagayan. This bridge spans the Cagayan River, which is the biggest river basin in the Philippines. It is the second-longest bridge in the country after San Juanico Bridge. It shapes some of Santiago-Tuguegarao Road (assigned as N51 by the Department of Public Works and Highways highway routing system), a significant intersection of the Pan-Philippine Highway.
A general belief is that the bridge is long enough for an individual to recite the whole Philippine National Anthem while passing through.
President Carlos Garcia issued ₱200,000 to start the building of the bridge in 1959. The amount of meager was increased in various allotments epitomized in different Republic Acts through the activity of second District Congressman Benjamin Ligot. On December 11, 1960, the ground-breaking ceremonies were attended by President Garcia.
The bridge’s construction was based on the innovative design of ten 240-feet steel over truss spans and one 50-feet I-beam approach to each end. Through the preliminary ₱200,000, Alonzo accomplished Abutment A. Pier I, footing, and base of Pier II.
President Diosdado Macapagal took over as President In 1962, and nobody perceives whether he would carry on the project. Congressman Ligot persuaded the President to carry on the plan below one AGUID Construction Company.
The numerous floods have extended the river channel and qualified plan for the bridge 14 240-feet Japanese steel through truss spans, one 50-feet I-bar approach on the Solana side.
President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the Secretary of Highways Antonio Raquiza to hire the department’s development group led by Engineer Rogelio Talastas to Buntun Bridge. Under Alonzo’s overall management, the group work in full swing in May 1968.
By May 10 the next year, the construction of the bridge was almost done. But the development group was moved to another project, leaving Alonzo to the development of the grouted riprap and finish the painting of the landmark structure and the road approaches.
On June 1, 1969, First Lady Imelda Marcos opened the bridge for the traffic, which acquired three organizations to build.
Buntun Bridge serves as the main entrance to the Cagayan’s provincial capital, Tuguegarao City. It connects to the second and third locale districts of Cagayan and Apayao. The road infrastructure measures have 1,369 m (4,491 ft), which is considered the longest river bridge in the Philippines and has 14 Japanese steel spans. The bridge offers an unhindered, beautiful perspective on the Cagayan River, the amplest and longest waterway in the nation.
3. Candaba Viaduct Bridge
The Candaba Viaduct Bridge is located in the CITY OF SAN FERNANDO along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), which has been recognized as a lifesaver for Metro Manila citizens leaving to Pampanga and Bulacan provinces if there a massive earthquake, is in good condition, as indicated by an authority of the company operating the expressway.
Also, a 5-kilometer viaduct bridge is known as Pulilan-Apalit Bridge, a charge by an advisor to be compliant with protection standards. Senior vice president for construction and engineering Raul Ignacio of NLEx Corporation once said at a meeting of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry early this month.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos’s administration, the construction of the bridge was started in 1974 and completed in 1976. Ass-Jakobsen was designed the bridge and now maintained by Manila North Tollways Corporation.
This reference of the bridge is present in a joke as “From the opposite end, it was still an egg. When they reached the opposite end, it became a ‘bird’ due to the bridge’s length”.
Major movement
At the Candaba Swamp, it was constructed above rice fields and fishponds in 1976. The bridge is thought to be a weak part of the 80-km NLEx, might be cut off a should an earthquake of a 7.2 magnitude, named the “Big One,” strike the Valley Fault System (VFS).
The East Valley Fault spans 10 km in Rizal province, whereas the West Valley Fault runs for more than 100 km over provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Metro Manila, and Cavite and Laguna.
Based on its design of moving every 600 years, it is said that the VFS is ripe for a significant movement.
Bridge, relocation
According to Renato Solidum Jr. Undersecretary for disaster risk reduction and climate change that the bridge may sway like a snake, one of the potential situations drawn up in the case of the Big One.
Ignacio said that NLEx Corporation is ready to set up a bailey bridge to manage emergencies at the viaduct. He also plans to migrate casual settlers under the bridge to move them out in harm’s way.
The Manila North Road is also known as the MacArthur Highway, which serves as the other departure road to Central Luzon.
Solidum said the possible dangers from a 7.2- magnitude earthquake were more significant because more individuals lived in Metro Manila, and additional structures were exposed to the VFS. More than 10 million individual’s homes are in the capital.
4. Jones Bridge Manila
William A. Jones Memorial Bridge is generally recognized as the Jones Bridge. It is a curved girder bridge that spans the Pasig River in the City of Manila, Philippines. The Bridge was named after legislator William Atkinson Jones of the United States. He worked as the chairman of the U.S. Insular Affairs House Committee, which had earlier work out as the authority over the Philippines and the chief creator of the Jones Law that gave the nation administrative self-sufficiency from the United States.
Constructed to substitute Bridge of Spain (Puente de España), at the Binondo district to Padre Burgos Avenue, and at the Ermita district, the bridge joins Quintin Paredes Road.
The Longest span of Jones Bridge is 300 meters (984 feet) and has a total of 3 spans. The Bridge has 2 Piers in water, has the Load limit of 20 tons (20,000 kg), and has 4 (2 per direction) number of lanes.
Design
Filipino architect Juan M. Arellano has initially designed using neoclassical architecture. The first incarnation of the Bridge features three curves resting on two massive piers, decorated by artificial stone and substantial adornments, and It also has four models on concrete plinths that symbolically represent nationhood and motherhood.
During World War II, initially, Bridge was devastated by retreating Japanese troops and was reconstructed in 1946 by the Philippine public works and the U.S. The reconstructed Bridge has the two piers and three curves but detached all of the decorations.
The Bridge was primary partly re-established in 1998. In 2019, the Manila City Government started a rehabilitation project to “restore” the Jones Bridge to its unique close plan utilizing Beaux-Arts design like that of Pont Alexandre III in Paris and the return of the three individual figures.
In 1919, the Jones Bridge was initially custom-built under the supports of the City Government of Manila earlier the Insular Government, via the Philippine Bureau of Public Works, after took over in completing the Bridge’s construction in 1920.
The Bridge is aiming to substitute the Puente de España (Bridge of Spain), the first Bridge constructed to cross the Pasig River been built during the Spanish provincial period and the last manifestation of bridges that span a similar area since 1630.
It crumbled during the overwhelming rains of September 1914 that debilitated the central pier collapsing the middle span of the Bridge. The Puente, situated at one block upriver at Calle Nueva (now E.T. Yuchengco Street), was provisionally kept open utilizing a temporary truss bridge. In contrast, the new Bridge is being built at Quintin Paredes Street.
Construction
The construction of new bridges was a part of a significant plan of Manila Daniel Burnham, who desired to highlight the rivers of the city and related them to the canals of Venice and the Seine River in Paris.
This plan was applied and administered by William E. Parsons, but upon the way of the Jones Act, Filipino architect Juan M. Arellano took over and completed the Bridge’s finishing design. Jones died in 1918, whereas the Bridge is still being intended. The Filipinos named the passageway to the legislator for authoring the law that will provide the state independence from the United States.
Arellano designed the Bridge in the style of the passages built during Haussmann’s renovation of Paris. He exaggerated the piers with statues of boys on dolphins, like those on the Pont Alexandre III at the river Seine (which he had earlier stayed). He decided both ends of the Bridge with four supports like the Parisian Pont. He appointed a sculptor Martinez to construct four statues named La Madre Filipina (The Philippine Motherland), which would be located on the pedestals.
5. Macapagal Bridge Agusan Del Norte
6. Mactan Mandaue Bridge
MACTAN-MANDAUE BRIDGE
MACTAN-MANDAUE BRIDGE is one most amazing looking Bridge officially known as the Sergio Osmeña Bridge. Marcelo Fernan Bridge is situated in Metro Cebu, Cebu, in the Philippines, which spans crossways Mactan Channel linking Mactan Island to Cebu Island.
The Bridge was opened for the traffic in August 1999 from the older Mactan-Mandaue Bridge. The Bridge has 1237 meters (4058.40 feet) total length with an inside span of 185 meters (606.96 feet). The Bridge is one of the most stretched out and one of the longest bridges in the Philippines. It was titled after Senator Marcelo Fernan, who is a political figure from Cebu City.
This Bridge is a truss that joins the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu in Metro Cebu in the Philippines. The MACTAN-MANDAUE Bridge is one of the two bridges that spans across the Mactan Channel, and other Bridge is called Marcelo Fernan.
The Bridge connects the islands of Mactan and Cebu. Both bridges have turned into Cebu’s main tourist spots, and they directly connect Mandaue City to Lapu-Lapu City.
This Bridge sits with on leg on each side of the northern end of the Mactan Channel, which is an entry to the Cebu International Port. This port is managed by the Cebu Port Authority, where around 80% of international and domestic shipping operators and shipbuilders in the Philippines are situated.
The Marcelo Fernan Bridge has situated about 1.6 kilometers or 0.99 mi north of the Bridge.
On the south side, the Bridge has merely a one-foot walkway. From Mandaue on Cebu Island, the Bridge is accessed through A. C. Cortes Avenue. On Mactan Island, through the Basak–Marigondon Road, Lapu-Lapu is located, which interconnects through the Manuel L. Quezon National Highway.
The Mandaue-Mactan Bridge at first had tollgates on the two sides of the ways to the Bridge to collect fees from vehicles up to the late 1980s when the tool fees were halted. A while later, the tollgates were wrecked and evacuated.
The two bridges have hugely contributed to the financial growth of Cebu. Earlier the First Mandaue-Mactan Bridge was constructed. The only travel connection among Mactan Island to the mainland was through ships and rafts, which acquired some time and was subjected to the Mactan Channel’s ocean conditions.
Both bridges have encouraged the travel of merchandise and ventures between the mainland and Mactan Island and extraordinarily contributed to the financial improvement of Cebu.
The occurrence connotes it in Mactan Island of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the two export processing services of the Mactan Economic Zones 1 and 2, and numerous tourist destinations like bars and restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and resorts, beaches, historical landmarks, and other tourist destinations.
7. Marcelo Fernan Bridge
Marcelo Fernan Bridge
Marcelo Fernan Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge which is situated in Metro Cebu in the Philippines. The span of the bridge is across Mactan Channel joining Mandaue City to Lapu-Lapu City in Mactan Island. Nowadays, it is known as the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Philippines. It was called the Consolacion Bridge, and a temporary name Earlier named was the Marcelo Fernan Bridge. After the Municipality of Consolacion, it was named 2.6 kilometers or 1.6 miles from the north end of the bridge.
In August 1999, the opening of Marcelo Fernan Bridge was done to decongest the traffic from the older Mactan–Mandaue Bridge. The bridge has a total length of 4058.40 feet or 1237 meters with 185 meters (606.96 feet) center span. On August 3, 1999, it was accomplished and introduced by President Joseph Estrada. The bridge is one of the lengthiest and broadest bridge spans in the Philippines. The construction of the bridge was done with the assistance of the Japanese Government. It was named after a political figure Senator Marcelo Fernan from Cebu City.
Marcelo Fernan Bridge has a beautiful design that extends through the Mactan Channel, splitting big Cebu Island from its littler adjacent to Mactan Island. It is a link that stayed connect with a total length of 3,900 feet (1,200 meters). Look up at the sets of forcing segments that sprout from the base of this excellent engineering accomplishment.
The bridge structure has four paths for vehicles and two for walkers on the flanks. People can walk along the bridge to reach its midpoint and have high regard for the panoramic views.
People take photos of the water from cameras and choose their preferred attractions on the two islands. At work, the vista integrates native fishers and a variety of small and large boats—gaze southwest to the parallel Osmeña Bridge. People stay for the day’s end when idealistic shades of red darken the water and the sky. Value the perspective on the lights of the islands’ sights and the boats crossing the channel around the evening.
At peak hours, Anticipate substantial traffic on this busy bridge. Lease a vessel from the Cebu Yacht Club or somewhere else to go underneath the bridge and catch a glimpse look at its underside. Small concrete piers where people can sit jut out from the sides of the island underneath the structure.
8. Metro Manila Skyway
METRO MANILA SKYWAY
The Metro Manila Skyway is an eager undertaking including raised thruways and the interstate that fills in as the primary passageway in the south of Metro Manila, across a significant part of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX It is situated in the span from Alabang-Zapote (AH-26) road to Metro Manila Gil Puyat Avenue SLEX (C-3). It crosses through the very advanced regions of northern Luzon Expressway Quezon City, San Juan, Parañaque, Pasay, Manila, Makati, and Muntinlupa, Southern Luzon lightening the substantial traffic.
In the Philippines, the Skyway is the first utterly grade-separated highway and is still in maintenance and extension. This is probably the longest flyover in the world, with an overall length of 31.2 kilometers.
Alsina has structured this civil work and manufactured an extraordinary piece for the presentation of the piles of a nine-meter height highway bridge by variable dimensions of 2×2 m 2.5 x4.m. Also, Alsina is giving strapless formwork at a pace of 3 hours a set (3m/h) for concreting 9 meters high.
History of METRO MANILA SKYWAY
In November 1995, Lamtoro Gung Persada (CITRA) was a Jakarta-based speculator investor who went into a Supplemental Toll Operation Agreement (STOA) with the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC) as administrator and Republic of the Philippines through the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) as the grantor.
It was the outcomes of negotiations that started on October 31, 1994, with the organization of the Technical Working Group made out of agents from the Board of Investments (BOI), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the TRB, AIA Capital as money related guide, the Department of Finance (DOF), the PNCC, and the PT CITRA Group.
Below the STOA, Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corporation (CMMTC as the concessionaire was officially settled), was commanded to structure, fund, and build stage 1 of the South Metro Manila Tollway Project, comprising of a raised expressway from Buendia to Bicutan and the restoration of the at-level bit of the South Metro Manila Tollway venture. In April 1996, The STOA was affirmed by Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos.
Technical specifications
• Name: Metro Manila Skyway
• Operate by Skyway Operations and Maintenance Corporation (SOMCo.)
• Concession Container: Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corporation
• Concession starting date: August 24, 1995
• Concession ending date: 2010
• Highway exits: Total 22 (12 operational, ten under construction)
• Length: 40.84 kilometers (25.4 miles) (with Stage 3 and Extension Project)
• Lanes: 6 lanes (3 in each direction) from Plaza Dilao to Sucat; 2 lanes (1 in each direction) from Hillsborough to Alabang-Zapote; 4 lanes (2 in each direction) from Sucat to Hillsborough; 5 lanes (2 southbound lanes and three northbound lanes) of Extension Project.
• Exit ramps: 3
• Toll plazas: 6 (4 under construction or proposed and two operational).
• Height: 11 meters or 36 feet (Bicutan to Sucat, Buendia to Don Bosco, Amorsolo, and Hillsborough to Alabang), 19 meters or 62 feet (Bicutan Exit and Sucat Exit), 141 feet or 43 meters (Runway Toll Plaza to Bicutan and Don Bosco to NAIA) and standard (Runway Toll Plaza).
9. Patapat Bridge Ilocos Norte
PATAPAT VIADUCT
If there is something famous in Ilocos alongside panoramic mountains and stunning beaches, it is the vast concrete roads. Ferdinand Marcos ensures Ilocandia got that. Thus a bridge in Ilocos would not be astounding. However, what makes the Patapat Viaduct stunning is not because it is widespread, but because it constructed it poetic.
Patapat Viaduct is a viaduct situated in the city of Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, and it is also called Patapat Bridge. It also has a coastal resort town on the northernmost tip of Luzon Island in the Philippines.
The design of Patapat Bridge is a viaduct, and the concrete is used to construct the ramp. It has a height of 31 meters or 102 feet. It has a limit of 15 metric tons (15 long tons; 17 short tons). The viaduct has a two-lane single carriageway (one lane per direction).
The Patapat Bridge is a beautiful raised highway snaking around the beach at the bottom of Mountain Range of the North Cordillera. The viaduct was constructed to link the Maharlika Highway from Laoag, Ilocos Norte to the Cagayan Valley Region. Its wharves lay on spread footings established on outcropping bedrock.
This superb 1.2 km winding viaduct has a cousin in France, also called the French Riviera of the Northern Philippines. The Patapat viaduct changes the scenery, adding a touch of the human power of construction alongside the verdant mountains.
Under the general administration of DPWH-PMO-PJHK, the Bridge was built by Hanil Development Corporation Limited and was finished and opened for traffic in October 1986. Along the town’s beachfront mountains, it ascends. It is the starting point of the Cordillera Mountain Range that winds over Northern Luzon. It is the fourth-longest viaduct in the Philippines.
Over 30 meters above sea level The Patapat Viaduct is a high road with a 1.3 km long coastal bridge. In Laoag, this viaduct connects the Maharlika Highway to the Cagayan Valley. This is a bustling road over the waterfront zones of Pagudpud. The fourth-longest Bridge in the country. This winding concrete beauty is famous as the northernmost roadway part of Ilocos Norte.
The Patapat Viaduct doesn’t merely give drivers a unique perspective on the seashore but also solves the problem of causing major vehicular accidents and landslides in the region.
There are merely a few vehicles that are passing on the viaduct.
It was practically abandoned, so we have a significant and safe time for captivating pictures on the broad road. The sea view is lovely, and you will not see remorse by getting wedged in traffic here because you’ll have the chance to view the sea scene and perhaps consider something.
10. San Juanico Bridge
San Juanico Bridge
San Juanico Bridge is one of the most amazing and has the longest Bridge spanning a seawater body in the Philippines. It has a total length of about 2.16 kilometers or 1.34 mi. This Bridge is the part of the Pan-Philippine Highway, and this highway is also known as Maharlika Highway.
In 1965, the highway was proposed, and constructions were started under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos to use as the country’s main route of transportation. San Juanico Bridge has a network of bridges, roads, and sea routes that connects the islands of Samar, Luzon, Leyte, and Mindanao in the country. It stretches from Leyte to Samar through the San Juanico Strait.
By the government, San Juanico Bridge is considered as per a leading tourist destination of the Tacloban. This Bridge also helps as an essential part of both the economies and tourism of the islands of Leyte and Samar by connecting them.
The Bridge’s supports are created on steel H-piles, whereas using the Prepakt method, its piers are rock seated pedestals made. It has tapered cantilevered copings and single cylindrical shafts.
Construction
The bridge construction was started in 1969 during the presidential campaign and was completed in four years in 1973. The inauguration ceremony was held on July 2 during the celebration of Imelda Marcos’ birthday. For his wife Imelda, Marcos constructed San Juanico Bridge as a gift. He utilizes public funds siphoned through the loan of controversial Marcos Japanese ODA scandals. During the run-up to the 1969 Presidential election campaign, the project was one of the high-visibility foreign-loan, which was started by Marcos.
Upon its finish, public works engineers and market analyst’s open works designs immediately labeled it as a trinket, which seemed to be a belonging that is costly and useless to keep up or hard to discard. Since its regular day, traffic was meager even to justify the expense of its development. Therefore, its growth has been related to what has been known as the Marcoses’ “building complex”. Its extended length has a steel brace viaduct, which was constructed on strengthened stable docks, and its principle range is of a curve formed bracket structure.
Financing
In the mid-1960s, the project of the Philippine-Japan Friendship highway began with a solitary US$25 million Japan Export-Import Bank loan implied for the acquisition of gear for road improvement. However, the Marcos organization mentioned its extension to join a bridge among Leyte and Samar. Also, for different ocean traffic projects, for example, move on/move off ships.
On September 22, in the year 2002, ₱25-million damage is caused by a barge rammed into a concrete foundation of the Bridge. After that, In October, A bridge portion was slid down about 10 centimeters after metal support for its specific grounds gave way, credited by Engineer Jimmy Chan to “material fatigue.”