Bello partially lifts work suspension in Skyway
MANILA, Philippines — The government is allowing work to resume on most of the Skyway Extension Project just a day after all construction work was temporarily halted following an accident that killed one and injured at least six others.
In an order issued Tuesday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III lifted the work suspension order by a labor regional director on the rest of the Skyway extension project but sustained the halting of work on the area where a steel girder fell and crushed commuter vehicles last Saturday.
JUST IN: The Department of Labor and Employment partially lifts the work suspension order on the Skyway extension project, allowing works to continue on the entire expressway except the portion from where a steel girder fell last weekend @PhilstarNews pic.twitter.com/JujKJ8soCh
— Xave Gregorio (@XaveGregorio) November 24, 2020
Bello acknowledged that stopping all work on the Skyway extension project “will cause prejudice to the employees assigned/deployed thereat whose livelihood heavily depends on the said project’s continued operation.”
He also quoted EEI Corp., the contractor, as saying in a November 23 letter that “immediate stoppage of all works in the entire Skyway extension project would present further risk and additional peril on the works.”
The lifting of the suspension, however, is still subject to the results of a Tuesday hearing to determine lapses in labor protection in the building of the expressway. No details have been released on what transpired during the hearing.
Contractors have said that the accident would delay project completion to February next year from the original plan to open by next month.
The Skyway Extension Project will open at least three new lanes in the northbound section and two lanes southbound, within the 14-kilometer stretch. Once completed, the project is seen as a viable alternative to EDSA for motorists going from south to north Luzon and vice-versa.
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