Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. said it expects to complete the first section of the P10-billion C5 South Link Expressway by March next year. “We have launched girders starting last Oct. 6 across PNR [Philippine National Railways] area, and we are set to launch long span steel girders that will cross the at-grade portion of Skyway and South Luzon Expressway in the coming days. This is a critical activity of the project and we expect substantial completion after the girders are installed” said Luigi Bautista, president and chief executive of CIC, the concessionaire of Manila-Cavite Expressway. “The completion of the launching should allow us to complete and open the Merville section of C5 South Link by the end of March of 2019,” he said. The entire C5 South Link, which is expected to be completed by 2020, will seamlessly connect Circumferential Road 5 to Cavitex via Merville and Sucat in Paranaque. “We would like to seek the understanding and patience of all motorists, for the temporary inconvenience. In cooperation with Somco [Skyway O&M Corp.], partial closures of Skyway and Skyway at grade during off-peak hours is implemented. This is necessary when we position and install the girders,” he said. CIC said it was working closely with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works and Highways and the Taguig, Pasay and Parañaque LGUs on the traffic management. San Miguel Corp. said it expects higher traffic build-up on its expressways as Cavitex starts work to launch girders that would cross the at-grade portion of Skyway and South Luzon Expressway.“We have offered assistance to MPIC to make sure its project gets delivered on time to minimize inconvenience and provide the full benefits of C-5 Southlink to our motorists in the soonest possible time. We recognize and support government’s objective to develop a more expansive network of roads of which this new construction is part of,” SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said. When completed, the C5 South Link project will provide motorists from Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite direct access to C5. “The project is progressing on time and this is good news to the estimated 50,000 vehicles that will be decongested in Sales Road in Pasay and EDSA when it starts commercial operations,” Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said. “Travel time from Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite to Taguig will be cut to 20 to 30 minutes from the usual one-and-a-half hour drive with the direct access to C5. This is an important project which is part of the BBB program of this government,” Villar said.