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The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) recently announced that Phase 1 of the EDSA rehabilitation is two months ahead of schedule, and has been officially completed.

Road work from Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City to Orense Street in Makati was concluded last April 6 and yes, construction did not stop even during the Holy Week, with DPWH sticking to its nightly working schedule from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

In a text message, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said that Phase 1 covering work on the vehicle lanes was supposed to end in May but is now finished so they are two months ahead of schedule. The widening of the sidewalks, meanwhile, is estimated to finish in July but he is hoping to have it done earlier. “Yan ang medyo mabusisi,” he noted.

So how did DPWH manage to finish Phase 1 in such a short period of time?

He explained that they did not follow the old method of re-blocking the entire EDSA which would have been a nightmare and would have taken 2.5 years. DPWH instead consulted the Japanese and the conclusion was they needed only to re-block certain portions which really needed repair and retain those that are still in good condition.

Dizon pointed out they required that the contractor must have the necessary equipment to finish the work in six months with working hours only from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every day and all lanes must be passable by 5 a.m. the next day. “This meant that hindi puwedeng mano mano style ang gagawin at kailangan may tamang equipment,” he said.

He also revealed that they required stone mastic asphalt which is a higher grade asphalt typically used on runways. The result is a shorter timeline, less disruption to traffic, but cheaper and the cost is only one third of the original P17-billion budget, he added.

 And with the President urging the department to start work on Phase 2 of the rehabilitation project, Dizon announced that they are bidding out the second phase this month, which will cover Orense to the other end of EDSA in Monumento, Caloocan.

 The secretary told me that Phase 2 bidding will be conducted mid-April and work will start in end-May of this year.

 Asked whether they can finish the entire rehabilitation in eight months, Dizon said they would know by the time they bid out since it will be the rainy season soon so that could possibly slow down work. But definitely, we will finish the whole of EDSA next year, he emphasized.

Last January, Dizon said that the rehabilitation of EDSA, which began last Dec. 24, will be completed in eight months, with Phase 1 covering Roxas Boulevard to Orense taking four months and Phase 2 another four months.

EDSA, the 23.8-kilometer Metro Manila highway that connects six major cities namely Caloocan, Quezon City, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati and Pasay, was being rehabilitated without burdening road users.

And to think that the former DPWH leadership had wanted to shut down this major highway for two years to make way for the full-scale rehabilitation. Imagine the punishment it would have wielded for commuters and motorists had this plan pushed through. The original plan would have cost P17 billion and 2.5 years but under Dizon’s leadership, EDSA’s full rehabilitation would be achieved faster and almost one-third of the original cost at P6 billion.

Last December 2025, Dizon announced that work on EDSA would start on Dec. 24 with the least disruption. 

Commuters and motorists using EDSA out of necessity barely felt the cost and the disruption as Phase 1 was finished in record time and with just one-third of the original budget.

Good for us that the President saw the folly of the original plan and gave us a public works chief who came up with a different and less painful solution.

Technology, long existent but ignored because it offered no opportunity for graft, was used. Work went on during hours when vehicle volume was at its thinnest.

Earlier, the DPWH said that its next major road project after the EDSA rehabilitation will be the upgrading of the C-5 road which connects the cities of Taguig, Pasig, Quezon City and Las Piñas, another busy thoroughfare.

Dizon said that the upgrading of C-5 will be done at the end of April or early May but work can be finished within the term of the present administration.

Then there’s the story of Maharlika Highway.

The DPWH has launched a massive multi-year rehabilitation of the 3,000-km Pan-Philippine Highway which is estimated to cost about P16 billion.

Maharlika has been described as a muddy, pot-holed stretch, a road people avoided if they could. For years, the highway’s condition cried for attention but got none from the government.

But under DPWH’s new leadership, work on portions of the highway in Quezon, Bicol and Samar have started but according to Dizon, the major long-term rehabilitation will start next month.

“But right now, may mga naayos na kaming perennially bad sections like Gumaca and Pagbilao in Quezon and in Camarines Sur and Samar pero yun kailangan ng major rehabilitation we think we can finish by end of next year,” he told me.

Dizon earlier said that they are eyeing to engage the country’s top and most reputable contractors to ensure efficiency and quality of the work.

It took no time for major improvements to take shape and provide relief to millions using Maharlika. A trip that used to take 12 to 14 hours was cut in half. The impact was immediate.

Even the long-delayed Unified Grand Central Station in Quezon City will be finished by the end of next year at the same time as the expected opening of MRT-7 to the public, Dizon revealed.

Those saying Dizon is all inspection, all talk, and no action have been proven wrong.

It may take some time before the citizens start trusting the DPWH and before they can stop thinking of it as this corrupt government agency whose people with their cohorts stole hundreds of billions of pesos from flood control projects alone.

But as they say, actions speak louder than words. Restoring the people’s faith in the DPWH may take some time but at least, the right seeds are now being planted.

“Trabaho lang kami. Tuloy lang namin ito,” Dizon said.

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