St. Luke’s to donate footbridge to QC

The St. Luke’s Medical Center is proposing the construction of a footbridge in front of the hospital located on E. Rodriguez Avenue for the safety of pedestrians and to help ease traffic flow in Quezon City.

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. welcomed the possible donation and bankrolling of the project as relayed to him by St. Luke’s communications director Marilen Tronqued-Lagniton during the regular Tuesday Club meeting at the EDSA-Shangrila in Mandaluyong City.

As proposed by St.Luke’s, the footbridge would be constructed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in coordination with the City Engineers’ Office of the Quezon City government.

"We are concerned with the safety of our patients and visitors and we want to lessen the risk when they come here and make it more convenient for the people crossing E. Rodriguez," Tronqued-Lagniton told Belmonte. "The proposal is driven by our concern for excellent customer service to our patients."

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando told Belmonte that he would immediately instruct MMDA engineers to coordinate with their counterparts at the Quezon City Engineers’ Office.

"It is a good precedent," the mayor said as he cited the private sector initiatives of the management of St.Luke’s, led by its president Jose Ledesma to shoulder the construction of the footbridge which would also serve visitors and personnel of the hospital as well.

In a recent executive staff meeting at the NS Amoranto Bulwagan, Belmonte also disclosed that the city government is putting up two footbridges along Commonwealth Avenue — one near the Eastwood area and another in front of Ateneo de Manila University.

The Eastwood pedestrian overpass will also be undertaken by the MMDA while the city government takes care of the construction of the Ateneo overpass.

Fernando estimates that it would cost the St. Luke’s Medical Center about P6 million to P8 million to fund the construction of the footbridge that would cross the four-lane portion of E.Rodriguez Avenue, which is an accident-prone area.

"The footbridges are safer for pedestrians and at the same time the roads are cleared so that motorists can travel faster," Fernando pointed out.

The MMDA chief noted that this latest private sector initiative by the St. Luke’s Medical Center to finance the construction of a footbridge is the second of its kind to done by the MMDA.

The first one, he said, is the ongoing construction of a footbridge on Airport Road going toward Multinational Village in Parañaque City.