Julia Vargas Avenue is a central east–west arterial road that passes through

Ortigas Center Ortigas Center (also known as the Ortigas Central Business District or Ortigas CBD) is a central business district located within the joint boundaries of Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City, within Metro Manila in the Philippines. With an area o ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is a four-lane divided road with one-way protected bike lanes that run parallel to

Ortigas Avenue Ortigas Avenue is a highway connecting eastern Metro Manila and western Rizal in the Philippines. It is one of the busiest highways in Metro Manila, serving as the main thoroughfare of the metro's east–west corridor, catering m ...

to the north and

Shaw Boulevard Shaw Boulevard (formerly known as Jose Rizal Boulevard and Pasig Boulevard; commonly known as Crossing) is a 4-8 lane highway connecting the cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig in the Philippines. The boulevard is named after William James Shaw, fou ...

to the south. The avenue stretches from Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue ( C-5 Road) in Ugong,

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig (), is a highly-urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people. It is located along the eastern border of Metro Mani ...

in the east to

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA (), is a major circumferential road around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or cities, namel ...

(EDSA) in Wack-Wack Greenhills,

Mandaluyong Mandaluyong ( ; ), officially the City of Mandaluyong (, ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly-urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a popula ...

in the west. It was named for philanthropist Doña Julia Vargas de Ortigas, wife of Ortigas & Company Limited Partnership founder Don Francisco Ortigas y Barcinas, who owned the Hacienda de Mandaloyon estate on which Ortigas Center was built.

Route description

Julia Vargas Avenue originates at an intersection with C-5 Road, also known as E. Rodriguez, Jr. Avenue, where SM Center Pasig is located. It heads west across Valle Verde. Between the next intersection at Lanuza Avenue and City Golf, Vargas is the boundary between Valle Verde 3 and 4 villages. It passes the Ortigas Home Depot, a

Sitel Foundever Group (previously known as Sitel Group) is a privately owned customer experience technology company headquartered in Luxembourg City. Foundever provides outsourced sales, technical support, customer service, and other business pro ...

call center building, and a row of bars on the northern side before it comes to an intersection with

Meralco Avenue Meralco Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare in Ortigas Center in Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines. It links Ortigas Avenue in the north and Shaw Boulevard in the south and borders the western edge of Valle Verde in Ugong, Pasig, Ugong. It is n ...

and the Meralco flyover. West of Meralco Avenue, the avenue officially enters the

business district. It passes the office towers in San Antonio,

, toward the border with Barangay Wack-Wack Greenhills,

, at the intersection with ADB Avenue and San Miguel Avenue, where the El Pueblo Real de Manila strip mall is located. This span of Julia Vargas Avenue onwards used to contain one-way unprotected bike lanes, which have since faded. The Ortigas Walkways Project, a series of elevated pedestrian walkways, covers the span of Julia Vargas Avenue within San Antonio. From ADB and San Miguel to Bank and St. Francis, Vargas is one-way westbound only. The left side of the road only allows left turns to St. Francis Street, while the right side continues as a service road and allows right turns to Bank Drive. At the western edge of Ortigas Center are

St. Francis Square Mall St. Francis Square is a mixed-use development located within the Ortigas Center central business district in Mandaluyong, Philippines. The development is owned and managed by the St. Francis Square Group of Companies and is located across the ...

San Miguel Corporation San Miguel Corporation (), abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate with headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines. Originally fo ...

Headquarters, and

SM Megamall SM Megamall (formerly as SM Megamall Ortigas and colloquially known as Megamall), is a shopping mall located in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. Opened in 1991, it is the third SM Supermall, after SM North EDSA and SM Ci ...

. The avenue ends at

EDSA Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA (), is a major Ring road, circumferential road around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or citi ...

as a two-way carriageway.

Development

Carpool lanes

The road was previously a six-lane divided avenue with no bike lanes until 2018 when an experimental

road diet A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. The ...

was implemented. This diet changed the corridor into a widened four-lane (two lanes per direction) divided avenue with one-way bike lanes with

bollards A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats. In modern usage, it also refers to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to preve ...

. In each direction, one lane acted as a carpool lane for at least four passengers per vehicle, while the other was designated as a non-carpool lane. This traffic scheme has since been rescinded due to motorist confusion. Despite this, the lane markings remain, and vehicle traffic during rush hours largely ignores them, informally reverting the avenue to its six-lane (three lanes per direction) state.

Motorcycle and bike lanes

In March 2021, Pasig Mayor

Vico Sotto Victor Ma. Regis "Vico" Nubla Sotto (; born June 17, 1989) is a Filipino politician who has served as the 12th mayor of Pasig since 2019. He previously served as a member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Pasig City Council for the first district ...

announced that the avenue would undergo another road diet, shrinking the two car lanes and adding a motorcycle lane parallel to the bike lane. The bike lane will also be physically separated by plant boxes.

Intersections

Landmarks

* Antel Global Corporate Center *

Integrated Bar of the Philippines The Integrated Bar of the Philippines ( abbreviated as IBP) is the national organization of lawyers in the Philippines. It is the mandatory bar association for Filipino lawyers. History The IBP was established as an official organization for ...

* Metrobank Ortigas Center * The Centerpoint Ortigas * The Currency Ortigas * City Golf * El Pueblo Real de Manila * One Corporate Center * CW Home Depot * New

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA; ) is a government agency of the Philippines responsible for constituting the regional government of Metro Manila, comprising the capital city of Manila, the cities of Quezon City, Caloocan, ...

Head Office *

Headquarters *

* SM Center Pasig *

The Podium The Podium, also called SM Podium or SM The Podium, is a mixed-use development located along ADB Avenue in the Ortigas Center, a major business and commercial district in Mandaluyong, Philippines. It was developed in December 2001 and officiall ...

Notes

References

{{coord, 14, 35, 3, N, 121, 4, 3, E, type:landmark, display=title Streets in Metro Manila