Sunday, April 12, 2009

Diosdado Macapagal Bridge

The Diosdado Macapagal Bridge is the longest bridge in Mindanao, which is 3 kilometers upstream of the old Magsaysay Bridge and provides an alternate route across the Agusan River to connect the Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway (Surigao-Agusan-Davao road) and the Butuan City-Cagayan-Iligan road. The bridge is gaining popularity as the only cable stayed bridge with steel deck and single tower in Mindanao, and it has a total length of about 10.30 kilometers.

It was during the Presidency of Joseph estrada that the project was approved which was lobbied by the city government way back President Fidel Ramos' time to decongest the traffic of the more than 50 year old Magsaysay Bridge and create an alternate route. However, it was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who approved and implemented the project. The bridge was funded through a Special Yen Loan Package from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The project was started on May 6, 2004 and completed in May 2007.

The Diosdado Macapagal Bridge is envisioned to provide a more reliable infrastructure with greater design and safer traffic measures while the Butuan City Bypass Road will divert the traffic passing through the core of the city. The overall infrastructure project will enhance the urban transport needs for commerce and industries in the CARAGA region by sustaining the efficient flow of people, goods and services among the major growth centres in the eastern part of Mindanao.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo inaugurated the newly-completed 2.2 –billion Diosdado Macapagal Bridge and the Butuan Bypass Road project on July 10, 2007, touted by the Butuanons as a "legacy that would last a hundred years and make life easier for the whole of the CARAGA Growth Area."


  1. i-google earth mo kaya kung aabot 10.30 km yan. Be sure with your info. I've passed through that bridge from June-October 2009, to and from Bayugan.

  2. Lolololol. The road is 10 kilometers. The bridge itself is actually long, but not 10 kilometers. Maybe a quarter of a kilometer. It's a common misconception in Butuan.