Andrews Avenue

Route description

Summarize

Perspective

Andrews Avenue follows the old route of Nichols Road in Pasay and is split into three sections.

Sales Road

At its eastern terminus, the route begins as Sales Road at the Sales Interchange with the South Luzon Expressway. It is a continuation of Lawton Avenue from Fort Bonifacio via the Sales Bridge and a roundabout. It runs for approximately 900 meters (3,000 ft), heading southwesterly across the Villamor Air Base and Villamor Golf Course toward Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3. This section ends with another roundabout beneath the NAIA Expressway's off-ramp just before the road bends sharply to the west.

Andrews Avenue

The main section of Andrews Avenue is an eight-lane divided arterial that runs along the airport's northern perimeter. From the roundabout across from the Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum, the avenue continues along the southern side of Newport City, a mixed-use development facing the NAIA Terminal 3. It passes the integrated resort complex of Newport World Resorts, the Star Cruises Centre and the Shrine of St. Therese before reaching a large roundabout, which used to have a prominent "egg structure" in the middle until 2015, called Circulo del Mundo.^[3] Access to the airport terminal is via this roundabout, which also serves as a boundary between Newport and the older barangays of Pasay. From the former Circulo down to the intersection with Domestic Road, the avenue is lined with airline offices, maintenance facilities including those of Philippine Airlines, and a few barangays in between. The Manila Light Rail Transit facilities are located at this intersection before the avenue becomes known as Airport Road.

Airport Road

West of Domestic Road and a small creek called Estero de Tripa de Gallina, the road enters the Baclaran area of Parañaque. The road narrows into a four-lane undivided road carrying one-way westbound traffic. The road meets its western terminus at Roxas Boulevard.

Remove ads

History

Summarize

Perspective

The avenue was formerly called Nichols Field Road,^[4] later shortened to Nichols Road, after the US air base in Pasay, which it served. Nichols Field, in turn, was named after Captain Henry E. Nichols, a US Navy commander of the monitor ship USS Monadnock during the Philippine–American War.^[5]^[6] The air base was built in 1912,^[7] and the road to Fort McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio) and Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas Boulevard) was constructed shortly thereafter. The whole stretch from Dewey to Fort McKinley was named Nichols Road.^[8]

At present, the Fort Bonifacio/Taguig portion is named Lawton Avenue. In Pasay, the longest portion has been renamed to Andrews Avenue in honor of Lt. General Frank Maxwell Andrews.

From 2004 to 2017, the NAIA Expressway was built above most of the road's Pasay portion. The Circulo del Mundo roundabout built on the avenue was opened to motorists in 2010, featuring its centerpiece, Layag Islas (Islands in Flight), which was constructed from September 2009 to December 2010 but was eventually dismantled in November 2014 due to public backlash over its perceived wastefulness.^[9]

On April 14, 2024, a sinkhole formed along Sales Road near Villamor Air Base Gate 3, forcing the temporary closure of its two innermost eastbound lanes. Initially a pothole, it expanded to approximately 3 meters (9.8 ft) in width and depth.^[10] On April 15, Maynilad Water Services reported that the sinkhole likely resulted from soil saturation due to a water leak from its secondary pipeline, with the company investigating potential external damage as the cause.^[11] SMC Infrastructure also investigated whether the sinkhole and the leak have compromised the integrity of the NAIA Expressway.^[12] It was finally covered on April 17.^[13]

Remove ads

Route description

History

Points of interest

See also

References

Wikiwand - on