EDSA Greenways to make walking better along Cubao, Balintawak, Guadalupe, Taft

The Asian Development Bank shows off project concepts
Jul 24, 2020
PHOTO: Veejay Villafranca for Asian Development Bank, ADB

IN A press briefing held yesterday, the Asian Development Bank renewed its loan commitments to the Philippines.

So far this year, the financial institution has already extended $2.75 billion in credit to Manila, including a landmark $1.5 billion just last April to help combat COVID-19. But the ADB said that it will lend an additional $1.5 billion in the coming months.

CNN Philippines’ Melissa Luis Lopez reports that if the loan agreements push through, the country would have borrowed “an all-time high” of $4.2 billion (around P207 billion) from the ADB.

Among the beneficiaries of these loans is a pedestrian project called EDSA Greenways.

Initially proposed late last year, EDSA Greenways hopes to improve the walking environment in four key areas — Balintawak and Cubao in Quezon City, Guadalupe in Makati, and Taft Station in Pasay.

“The current pedestrian facilities on EDSA are poorly designed and pedestrians suffer from [an] unsafe and uncomfortable pedestrian environment,” ADB said in its project overview.

If you want to suffer some pre-COVID mass transportation flashbacks, the ADB has various photos of commuters in Manila before the pandemic. The photos clearly show how hard pedestrians have it in this city.

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The EDSA Greenways project hopes to make these scenes a thing of the past by building 5 kilometers of elevated walkways in the aforementioned places. It will also widen existing footbridges, and add elevators to make it easier for the disabled, the elderly, and the very young to walk around the city.

Each walkway will be connected to a train station.

Here’s a concept drawing of the project, which shows a greenified walkway hanging over the outer lane of EDSA.

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The project was presented to the press in October of last year, with construction to begin at the end of 2020. According to ADB transport specialist Shuji Kimura, a $100 million ADB loan would be allotted for the walkways.

However, in yesterday’s briefing, Kimura said that its allotted loan would now be $130 million. Funds would be released by November 2020.

Among other projects to be funded by ADB loans would be a $400 million agricultural loan, an $300 million inclusive finance program, and a total of $625 million for both health systems enhancement and disaster resilience.

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    PHOTO: Veejay Villafranca for Asian Development Bank, ADB
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