Skyway O&M: Cause of Bicutan flood outside their control area

Localized flooding is a fairly common occurrence in Metro Manila; that’s why SUVs and pick-up trucks are so popular. Not even the South Luzon Expressway and Skyway At-Grade are immune to such things, though usually, the flooding is closer to the San Pedro and Alaska sections of the road.

Recently, however, there have been reports and videos of heavy flooding near the Bicutan section of SLEX and Skyway. Said floods have been so severe that not even trucks have been able to survive the flooding.

In response to this, the Skyways O&M Corporation issued a statement that indicates that the said zone hasn’t been a flood-prone area. Skyway says they’ve been managing and maintaining the drainage works in their area of responsibility consistently, but they traced the flooding to blockages down the line.

Skyway management says it’s because of major construction going on in a property nearby that has caused a blockage, putting it out of Skyway O&M’s direct control.

Below is the statement from Skyway O&M in full:

We would like to express our sincerest apologies to motorists affected by the heavy flooding at the Skyway At Grade (ground level) Bicutan in Parañaque City following continuing moderate to heavy rains since 6:00 PM of Wednesday, July 12 until today, Thursday, July 13 resulting in heavy traffic on both directions of the expressway.

Historically, this portion of the Skyway System has remained flood-free and we have consistently strived to maintain a smooth and reliable traffic flow for our valued users. Our maintenance teams conduct regular inspections at the drainage system to remove all obstructions such as sludge and garbage.

But over the past few months, the rise in floodwaters at the carriageway has become evident.

These incidents were primarily due to a drainage system problem outside of the Skyway system, which we traced in February this year, due to ongoing construction works in the area that are unrelated to our operations and outside our direct control.

Since then we have been in constant coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other government and private sector stakeholders in the area to find a way to address the issue together.

In fact, we lent some of our equipment to help drain floodwater faster and deployed our maintenance teams to siphon off water from the carriageway.

One of the stakeholders in the area is also currently working on the portion of the affected drainage system within their property, with the contractor committing to finish the outfall this month.

We are hopeful that this corrective action will restore the smooth flow of floodwaters to the nearby creek and put an end to the flooding at Skyway At-Grade Bicutan, which has disrupted the traffic flow and greatly inconvenienced our riding public.

In the meantime, we will continue to work with all involved stakeholders in the area to resolve the issue at the soonest possible time and ensure efficient and safe traffic flow on the expressway.