‘Someone once told me that part of the issue was a spat between the Ayala Group (which controls BGC) and the SM Group which, of course, owns SM Aura.’
THIS may be a parochial issue but I am sure I am not the only one bothered about it.
I live in a condo in Bonifacio Global City, along 5th Avenue, which connects St. Luke’s BGC and the S&R warehouse store at its northern end to McKinley Road on to McKinley Hill at its southwestern end where Megaworld is continuing to build new buildings.
Fifth Avenue, particularly the stretch leading up to the intersection with McKinley Road, has of late become a major traffic congestion point. One reason is obvious: someone (Globe?) is digging up the middle lanes of 5th Avenue, limiting vehicles to two lanes, which is clearly insufficient during rush hour.
To be fair, BGC used to be a traffic area everywhere. But the administrators of the property (First Bonifacio Development Corporation, I think) decided to make key roads as one-way streets, which made driving longer (distance wise) but faster (time wise).
But there’s something that I think needs to be done with 5th Avenue. And I think the solution is simple: open up the intersection of 5th Avenue and McKinley Road to allow vehicles to cross 5th Avenue from McKinley Road into McKinley Parkway and vice versa. By doing the latter, a vehicle traveling from SM Aura on McKinley Parkway will no longer have to turn towards the Land Rover dealership and then left onto 5th Avenue — but can just continue driving past the Singapore Embassy on the right and exit BGC via McKinley Road towards EDSA or Ayala Avenue.
Why the part of McKinley Parkway leading out towards McKinley Road with the Singapore Embassy on the right is closed is beyond me. For sure, it’s not a security issue of the Embassy, or a matter of safety due to construction along the road. Someone once told me that part of the issue was a spat between the Ayala Group (which controls BGC) and the SM Group which, of course, owns SM Aura. Closing McKinley Parkway, the “Marites” told me, was Ayala’s way of making things a bit tougher for their rival.
Not sure how true that is, but it sure causes so much pain to everyone who traverses 5th Avenue during rush hour in the morning or evening.
So there. A simple solution to a mess of a problem in BGC. Unless there are other considerations that prevent both sides of McKinley Parkway from being opened to traffic, I think this one will go a long way in clearing up the mess that it is today.
