Candaba Viaduct
Candaba Viaduct | |
|---|---|
The viaduct in 2022 before the construction of the third viaduct | |
| Coordinates | 14°57′15″N 120°46′36″E / 14.9542°N 120.7767°E |
| Carries | 9 lanes of E1 (North Luzon Expressway) |
| Crosses | Candaba Swamp Pampanga River |
| Locale | Apalit, Pampanga Calumpit, Bulacan Pulilan, Bulacan |
| Official name | Candaba Viaduct |
| Other name(s) | Pulilan–Apalit Bridge Candaba Pampanga Viaduct (STA 46+938 – 52+188) |
| Maintained by | NLEX Corporation (Tollways Management Corporation) |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Viaduct |
| Material | Concrete, asphalt |
| Total length | 5 km (3.1 mi) |
| Width | 12 m (39 ft) per direction |
| Height | 15 m (49 ft 3 in) |
| Clearance below | 6.1 m (20 ft) |
| No. of lanes | Nine-lane triple carriageway (three lanes per direction) |
| History | |
| Designer | Aas-Jakobsen |
| Engineering design by | Norconsult |
| Constructed by | Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (later Philippine National Construction Corporation; original bridges) First Balfour (emergency lay-by bays and median crossovers) Leighton Asia (third bridge) |
| Construction start | 1974 |
| Opened | 1977 |
| Statistics | |
| Toll | See NLEX toll matrix |
| Location | |
The Candaba Viaduct, also known as the Pulilan–Apalit Bridge and the Candaba Pampanga Viaduct, is a 5-kilometer (3.1 mi) viaduct carrying the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) across the Candaba Swamp in the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan, Philippines. It consists of nine lanes (three northbound and six southbound). It was the longest bridge in the Philippines upon its opening in 1977 until it was surpassed in 2021 by the 8.9 km Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), making the viaduct the second longest bridge in the country since then. The viaduct was designed by Aas-Jakobsen and built by Construction Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP, later renamed to Philippine National Construction Corporation) as part of construction of the whole NLEX.
Overlooking Mount Arayat to the east and the Zambales Mountains to the west, the viaduct is raised over Candaba Swamp and Pampanga River by 20 feet (6.1 m), about the same as the current elevation of Bacolor, also in Pampanga, after lahars that resulted from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo affected the municipality from 1991 to 1995, which keeps the highway open to traffic, even when the swamp gets flooded during the rainy or monsoon season. Lighting, emergency callboxes and CCTVs along the viaduct are powered by solar panels due to the problem of installing power lines within the viaduct.