Southeast Metro Manila Expressway

The Southeast Metro Manila Expressway (SEMME), also known as Skyway Stage 4, C-6 Expressway and formerly as Metro Manila Expressway, is an on-hold 32.664 km tolled expressway running across eastern Metro Manila and western Rizal. The expressway will help decongest the existing roadways across Metro Manila, such as EDSA and Circumferential Road 5. The expressway is part of the larger Circumferential Road 6 project. Which it's expansion from original C-6 length currently passing from General Santos Avenue in Taguig up to Highway 2000 (Phase 1) in Taytay, will expand to Cainta, Marikina, San Mateo, and in Quezon City.

The expressway will begin at the Skyway near FTI (now Arca South), Taguig, and will end at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City. It will also connect to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) in Balagtas, Bulacan.

The entire expressway will be a spur component of Expressway 2 (E2) of the Philippine expressway network.

History
In 1945, the Metropolitan Thoroughfare Plan was submitted by Quezon City planners Louis Croft and Antonio Kayanan, which proposed the laying of 10 radial roads to convey traffic in and out of the city of Manila to the surrounding cities and provinces and the completion of six circumferential roads that will act as beltways of the city, forming altogether a web-like arterial road system, including the sixth circumferential road, which runs from Meycauayan to Las Pinas. 28 years later, in the Urban Transportation Study in Manila Metropolitan Area (UTSMMA), it was proposed that the construction of the highway between Navotas and Las Pinas.

In 1983, under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, it was proposed that the highway would be a tolled expressway known as the Metro Manila Expressway (MME), and the route would begin at the North Luzon Expressway in Meycauayan and end at the South Luzon Expressway in Bicutan, Paranaque. The total length is approximately 44.570 km. The plan was undertaken by the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC). The proposal was revived again in 1993, when PNCC signed an agreement to build the expressway with PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada (CITRA) of Indonesia.

The agreement was supplemented on February 14, 1994, with a related undertaking on the part of CITRA. CITRA was to provide a preliminary feasibility study on the Metro Manila Skyways (MMS) project, a system of elevated roadway networks passing through the heart of the Metropolitan Manila area. In order to accelerate the actual implementation of both the MME and the MMS projects, PNCC and CITRA entered into a second agreement. Through that agreement, CITRA committed to finance and undertake the preparation, updating, and revalidation of previous studies on the construction, operation, and maintenance of the projects. According to the CITRA proposal, the planned alignment was to have 38.4 kilometers from Meycauayan to Bicutan, also the same route as the 1983 plan, while the remaining segments leading to San Pedro were 18 kilometers and 19 kilometers to Cavite.

In the late 2000s proposal, the Circumferential Road involves a 59.5-kilometer tollway that links the North and South Luzon Expressways via the towns of Rizal and the eastern parts of Metro Manila. This tollway will traverse the cities of San Jose Del Monte City in Bulacan and Antipolo City in Rizal; Marikina City; Taguig City; and Muntinlupa City. It shall also pass through the towns of Rodriguez/Montalban, San Mateo, Taytay, and Angono in Rizal; Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, and Noveleta in Cavite. The C-6 project was also included in the 2010 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study on the High Standard Highway master plan, the feasibility study undertaken by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Japan External Trade Organization in 2008, and another study by the Korean International Cooperation Agency with a full-scale FS.

The plan was launched again in 2014 by Citra and PNCC, as well as San Miguel Corporation. The Metro Manila Expressway, or C-6 Project, is actually Stage 4 of the South Metro Manila Skyway (SMMS). This toll road will stretch from Bicutan to San Jose Del Monte and will then connect to the proposed MRT-7 Project, which will extend to the NLEX. The toll road will have a length of 34.33 km, 7.62 km of which is the elevated portion, six (6) lanes with six (6) interchanges and 20 ramps, and a close toll collection system. The construction cost is estimated at P19.76 billion out of the total P29.84 billion project cost. The Restated Supplement to the Business and Joint Venture Agreement (Restated Supplement to BJVA) for the MME Project, executed in January 2014, contains the agreement of the parties and embodies the terms and conditions for MME.

Groundbreaking ceremony of the project was held on January 8, 2018. The project was scheduled to be completed in 2022, but construction was delayed due to right-of-way issues at the affected properties in Taguig and Rizal. Since then, no progress has been made as of 2024, with an elevated portion erected above the C-5/Bayani Road interchange.