By Goddes Hope Libiran, Assistant Secretary of the Philippine Department of Transportation, announced that the first TBM 7m in diameter to work on the initial phase of the Metro Manila line would be delivered in Jan. 2021. “The second TBM will arrive in February. Then the third to sixth will come in the succeeding months,” Libiran explained in an interview earlier this month.
Therefore, it is estimated that tunneling will follow in mid-2021 till end-2022, to start with the first phase of boring adjacent tunnels, three subway stations beneath the ground surface, and constructing a depot.
For this purpose, Japan International Cooperation Agency agreed with the Philippine government to receive a 104.53 billion yen loan to deliver proposed stations.
Preferred team Shimizu (a JV formed by Shimizu leading contractor, Fujita, Takenaka Civil Engineering, and EEI) secured a $1.05 billion contract in 2019 to build Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora, and North Avenue stations.
Once completed entirely in 2025, the Metro Manila subway will host 17 new stations in total.
