Construction of a New Icon to the Landscape – Between Cebu City and the Municipality of Cordova, Philippines

Two lane in each direction Bridge

The bridge (CCLEX) will have a total length of 5.3 miles (8.5 km) with two lanes in each direction. The main span will be cable stayed, 1,280′ (390 m) long and will be supported by twin tower pylons, 475′ (145 m) tall each. It shall have a navigation clearance height of 168′ (51 m) (vertical) and 855′ (260 m) (horizontal) to enable ships to traverse under safely. Two viaduct approach bridges and a causeway will also form part of the bridge with toll road facilities designed and inspired from the eight-rayed sun of the Philippines Flag on the artificial island.

Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation

Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation (CCLEC), which is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), awarded the project to Cebu Link Joint Venture (CLJV) for the design and build of the entire bridge. CLJV is a consortium made up of Acciona Construccion SA (Spain), First Balfour, Incorporated (Philippines) and D.M. Consunji, Incorporated (Philippines). The total project cost is estimated to be more than 30 billion pesos or $600M.

EFCO Scope of Work

The project was divided into three areas: West Side (Cebu), East Side (Cordova) and Main Bridge.

EFCO and CLJV worked together from the pre-bid stage to develop suitable solutions for the Main Bridge (pile caps) and West Side (pile caps, columns and headstocks) for on and off ramp and viaducts structures.

The Main Bridge

The Main Bridge team used a tieless HAND-E-FORM® system and SUPER STUDS® as strongback support with coil bolts anchored to bottom of the precast concrete slab to form the sides of the octagonal and rectangular shaped pile caps. With this tieless system, CLJV could save time and money by avoiding setting long form ties. They also used the HAND-E-FORM system to build their precast wall in their yard. The total pile cap for the Main Bridge is two sets of 35′-2″ x 47′-2″ x 8′-3″ (10.7 m x 14.36 m x 2.5 m) and four sets of 32′-10″ x 72′-3″ x 11′-6″ (10.0 m x 22.0 m x 3.5 m). EFCO supplied three sets of pile cap forms for the Main Bridge [one set 35′-2″ x 47′-2″ x 8′-3″ (10.7 m x 14.36 m x 2.5 m) and two sets 32′-10″ x 72′-3″ x 11′-6″ (10.0 m x 22.0 m x 3.5 m)]. EFCO’s HAND-E-FORM panel is standard, leasable equipment with various sizes and shapes. It is a rigid panel with an alloy steel face sheet with accurate dimensions. It is designed for man-handling or gang forming solution to help speed job progress. It was ideal in this application.

West Side

Meanwhile, the West Side team was working on an offshore location (on water). EFCO designed friction collars attached to the steel caissons with POWER TOWER Overhead Beams, SUPER STUDS® and E-BEAMS® to support the pile caps for both on and off ramp and viaduct structures. The on and off ramp had a total of 31 pile caps to pour, typically sized at 25′-4″ x 24′-4″ x 6′-7″ (7.7 m x 7.7 m x 2.0 m). EFCO supplied six sets of forms for these. EFCO supplied two sets of forms for the 10 viaduct pile caps, each 28′-7″ x 64′-8″ x 8′-3″ (8.7 m x 19.7 m x 2.5 m) in size.

EFCO PLATE GIRDER® is standard, leasable equipment being used to form columns and headstocks easily and quickly while providing great concrete finish results. The crew achieved an average of 32 ft2 (2.97 m2)/man-hour for fabrication, installation, stripping and cycling of formwork using EFCO PLATE GIRDER. The total number of columns to be poured were 80 [60 for on and off ramps, 5′ x 5′ x 19′-8″ (1.5 m x 1.5 m x 6 m) and up to 46′ (14 m) in height and 20 for viaduct, 9′-3″ x 9′-3″ x 19′-8″ (2.8 m x 2.8 m x 6 m) and up to 118′-2″ (36 m) in height]. EFCO supplied a total of 13 sets of forms, 15′-9″ (4.8 m) high for viaduct columns, which were done in up to seven lifts.

For the headstocks, EFCO supplied six sets of column mounted aerial forms; four sets at 11′-2″ x 46′-11″ x 6′-7″ (3.4 m x 14.3 x 2 m) and two sets at 11′-2″ x 74′-2″ x 8′-3″ (3.4 m x 22.6 m x 2.5 m). Total number of headstocks to be poured were 39; 29 for on and off ramp headstocks and 10 for viaduct headstocks.

The spanning capabilities of EFCO equipment and the close collaboration and expertise of EFCO’s and CLJV’s engineering teams was a winning formula to work on this project where traditional shoring was not an option due to the height being 131′-3″ (40 m) above water.

The project is currently still on-going and the teams using EFCO products are very pleased with the performance and results.

The key to the success in this project has been the ability to assemble an international team of highly seasoned CLJV and EFCO professionals, which pulled their expertise together to bring this impressive new icon in the Cebu landscape to reality.

EFCO looks forward to continuing to build successful partnerships in the Republic of Philippines and beyond. ◊