The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 11 has announced that the Samal Island-Davao City Connector (SIDC) project, valued at PHP19.32 billion, is slated for completion by September 2028. Dean Ortiz, the spokesperson for DPWH-11, shared this update during a press briefing on November 27, 2024, highlighting the project’s current progress and future milestones.
As of November 25, 2024, the project has achieved an overall accomplishment rate of 6.45 percent. The civil works component is 3.51 percent complete, while the detailed engineering design (DED) is nearly finished at 97.97 percent. Ortiz confirmed that all remaining DED plans were approved by November 5, 2024.
Significant strides have been made in the bored piling works, which started on May 1, 2024. On the Samal Island side, all 74 bored piles for the land viaduct have been completed, whereas on the Davao City side, 51 out of 110 piles are finished, representing 46.36 percent completion. Pile cap construction on the Davao City side began on September 12, 2024.
Ortiz also reported that 15.38 percent of the land viaduct substructure, or four out of 26 sections, have been completed. In Samal, issues related to the road-right-of-way in Barangay Limao have been resolved, with all 10 affected properties settled and expropriated. On the Davao City side, negotiations for 52 properties are ongoing, with 36 already paid and 16 under processing. The DPWH aims to finalize these claims by the first quarter of 2025.
The SIDC bridge, a 3.9-km, four-lane cable-stayed structure, will connect Davao City and the Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) across the Pakiputan Strait. It will boast a vertical navigational clearance of 47 meters, with landing points at the R. Castillo-Daang Maharlika junction in Davao City and the Samal Circumferential Road in Barangay Limao.
Upon completion, the bridge is expected to accommodate up to 25,000 vehicles daily, significantly reducing travel time between Davao City and Samal from 30 minutes by ferry to just five minutes.