On the Mandaluyong side, the bridge ends on Pantaleon Street and Barangka Drive, both roads that are already heaving with vehicles during rush hour. Sending more cars into this area will only make this bottleneck worse (and I say this as someone who lives not far from the place and sees the chaos firsthand every single day). On the Makati side, cars are either funneled through to the already congested EDSA or made to find their way through Rockwell and eventually along Kalayaan Avenue and onto Makati Avenue—a road so badly congested it already makes you lose the will to live on most days.

Simply widening the road will not do anything to ease congestion in the vicinity. In fact, quite the opposite might be the case

So, why is the bridge being rebuilt? None of the powers-that-be have indicated that there is anything structurally wrong with it, so the reason probably lies elsewhere. When we stopped by the bridge earlier today to take some pictures of it for this article, a group of rather camera-shy Chinese workers was already in the process of taking the bridge apart, with sparks from an acetylene torch providing a short distraction for commuters stuck in traffic next to the structure. The reason those workers weren’t too excited about being caught on film may have something to do with the way this controversial project is being financed.