San Juanico Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 11°18′10″N 124°58′19″E / 11.30278°N 124.97194°E |
Carries | 2 lanes of AH 26 (N1) (Maharlika Highway); pedestrian sidewalks |
Crosses | San Juanico Strait[1] |
Locale | Santa Rita, Samar and Tacloban, Leyte[2] |
Other name(s) | Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway bridge;[3] formerly Marcos Bridge[4] |
Maintained by | Department of Public Works and Highways |
Characteristics | |
Design | Arch-shaped truss bridge |
Total length | 2,164 m (7,100 ft) |
Width | 14 m (46 ft)[5] |
Longest span | 192 m (630 ft) |
No. of spans | 43 |
History | |
Constructed by | Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines |
Construction start | 1969 |
Construction end | 1973 |
Construction cost | US$22 million (₱154 million) |
Opened | 2 July 1973 |
Location | |
The San Juanico Bridge[6] (Filipino: Tulay ng San Juanico; Waray: Tulay han San Juanico) is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway and stretches from Samar to Leyte across the San Juanico Strait in the Philippines.[2] Its longest length is a steel girder viaduct built on reinforced concrete piers, and its main span is of an arch-shaped truss design. Constructed during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos through Japanese Official Development Assistance loans,[7] it has a total length of 2.16 kilometers (1.34 mi)—the second longest bridge spanning a body of seawater in the Philippines after the Cebu-Cordova Bridge. It was also the longest bridge in the Philippines upon its opening in 1973, surpassed in 1976 by Candaba Viaduct of North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), another bridge that connects from one province to another, connecting the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan.[8][9]
Marcos built the bridge as a personal gift to his wife Imelda using public funds siphoned through the controversial Marcos Japanese ODA scandal.[8] It was one of the high-visibility foreign-loan projects initiated by Marcos during the run-up to the 1969 presidential election.[10] Completed four years later, it was inaugurated on 2 July 1973 on the birthday of Imelda Marcos.[8] Upon its completion, economists and public works engineers quickly tagged it as a white elephant because its average daily traffic was too low to justify the cost of its construction.
In the years after the Marcos conjugal dictatorship, economic activity in Samar and Leyte has finally caught up with the bridge's intended function under the guidance of several administrations from Corazon Aquino to the present administration, and has become an iconic tourist attraction.
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