The Magallanes Interchange is a four-level partial turbine interchange in

Makati Makati ( ; ), officially the City of Makati (), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, known for being one of the leading financial centers in the country. As of 2013, the city has the highest concent ...

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 serves as the junction between the Osmeña Highway,

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), and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) while also intersecting with inner streets and Chino Roces Avenue. It is also an interchange between the two train lines of Metro Manila, the MRT-3, which is over EDSA, and the

PNR Metro Commuter Line The PNR Metro Commuter Line was a commuter rail line operated by the Philippine National Railways. It was first inaugurated as the Metro Manila Commuter Service in 1970, and originally served the North Main Line and the South Main Line, as wel ...

beside Osmeña Highway and SLEX. It is currently one of the busiest intersections in Metro Manila.

History

After the proposal of President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

in 1969 to create six circumferential roads, EDSA, which used to end at

Taft Avenue Taft Avenue (; ) is a major road in southern Metro Manila. It passes through three cities in the metropolis: Manila, Pasay, and Parañaque. The road was named after the former Governor-General of the Philippines and President of the United Stat ...

(Manila South Road), was extended to

Roxas Boulevard Roxas Boulevard is a popular waterfront promenade in Metro Manila in the Philippines. The boulevard, which runs along the shores of Manila Bay, is well known for its sunsets and stretch of coconut trees. The divided roadway has become a tradem ...

. Thus, an interchange was required between the then-newly built Manila South Diversion Road and EDSA. It opened in 1975 officially as the ''Manila South Diversion Road–EDSA Interchange''. The site, as one of the interchange projects in Metro Manila, was funded through a loan by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). The second-level viaduct was opened in 1977. In 1993, more lighting facilities were installed at the interchange after an ordinance was ratified by the Makati local government. In 2005, the interchange underwent redevelopment and beautification by the Makati local government, opening a park at its ground level.

Traffic management measures

The interchange's elevated left-turn portion from Osmena Highway southbound onto EDSA northbound is indefinitely closed as a measure against traffic congestion and accidents in the area. In addition, the portion of Chino Roces Avenue passing beneath the interchange's flyovers along EDSA is designated as one-way northbound, with a vertical clearance of . Southbound traffic for that section of Chino Roces is redirected to EDSA's at-grade service road.

Feared collapse and rehabilitation efforts

The interchange was poorly designed as it had prior damages on the carriageway, particularly cracks and disintegration of concrete, guard rails, and steel expansion joints. Having been repaired in the 1980s, it was one of the most priority structures in Metro Manila that needed retrofitting. In November 2010, several pipe leaks were discovered under the interchange, leading to the closure of its outer lanes by the

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, ...

due to fears of compromised structural integrity; it was reopened in 2011. The strengthening works at the interchange were completed in 2017. The interchange's flyover is set for rehabilitation starting in October 2024.

References

{{Road infrastructure in Manila Road interchanges in the Philippines