Alabang–Zapote Road

Alabang–Zapote Road is a four-lane national road which travels east–west through the southern limits of Metro Manila, Philippines. It runs parallel to Dr. Santos Avenue in the north and is named after the two barangays it links: Alabang, Muntinlupa and Zapote in Bacoor and Las Piñas.
From its eastern terminus at an interchange with South Luzon Expressway's Alabang Exit, East Service Road, Manila South Road, and Montillano Street, the road runs westwards for approximately to the junction with Diego Cera Avenue. Since 1997, it has also extended further west for several hundred meters, connecting Las Piñas to its present terminus at Coastal Road in Bacoor, Cavite.
The road carries more than 70,000 vehicles per day as of 2016 and suffers from traffic jams. The Metropolitan [Manila Development Authority] listed Alabang–Zapote Road as a major traffic bottleneck point or choke point, and the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program or "number coding" scheme, is modified for the road to no longer include window hours.
The entire route is designated National Route 411 of the Philippine highway network.

Route description

The road begins at the junction of Manila South Road, Montillano Street, East Service Road, and South Luzon Expressway's Alabang Exit in Alabang, Muntinlupa, below the Alabang Viaduct and Skyway Extension. A spur carrying southbound traffic also branches the highway to the front of Starmall Alabang at Manila South Road. It then crosses into Filinvest City, Barangay Cupang, and Barangay Ayala Alabang. In Filinvest City, the road is interrupted due to realignment brought out by its development. The gap is filled by a segment of Bridgeway Avenue between West Service Road and Spectrum Midway before resuming as short frontage roads parallel to Skyway's South Station Exit ramp.
West of Investment Drive at Madrigal Business Park, it enters Las Piñas and goes past the commercial and residential areas of the city. It then crosses the Zapote River and enters the province of Cavite at Bacoor, where the road ends at the Bacoor Interchange of Coastal Road. Electric power sub-transmission lines by Meralco, placed on tall roadside posts, also shared by distribution lines, line almost the whole length of the road from Zapote in Las Piñas to Alabang in Muntinlupa.

Traffic

, the Las Piñas Traffic Management Office reported that more than 70,000 vehicles were travelling on Alabang–Zapote Road daily, already reaching above its allowable capacity. The road gained notoriety for its traffic jams, and it is listed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority as a major traffic bottleneck area in south Metro Manila, along with other major roads leading to Ninoy Aquino International Airport, like Sucat Road, Andrews Avenue, and Domestic Road. The Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, or the "coding" scheme, is modified for Alabang–Zapote Road to have no "window hours".

History

Alabang–Zapote Road follows an old Spanish coastal trail that linked the Province of Manila to La Laguna and other southern provinces. It was called Calle Real or Camino Real, which spanned from Ermita to Muntinlupa. It was also designated as part of Highway 1 and of Manila South Road, which spanned from Manila to Sorsogon province. Currently, only the road's section in Las Piñas and Muntinlupa is called Calle Real or Real Street as an alternative name for the road. The rest of the route was renamed to Del Pilar Street in Manila, Harrison Avenue in Pasay, Quirino Avenue in Parañaque, and Diego Cera Avenue in Las Piñas.
The road was extended to the northwest towards Coastal Road in Bacoor in 1997 with the construction of the four-lane Alabang-Zapote Centennial Flyover to ease the increasing traffic volume along the road. On July 16, 1998, the road's section between Alabang, Muntinlupa and Zapote, Las Piñas was renamed Filemon C. Aguilar Avenue, after the former Las Piñas–Muntinlupa representative, by virtue of Republic Act No. 8714. The road's section in Alabang, particularly between Filinvest and Bridgeway Avenues, was also realigned between 2006 and 2012 with the development of Filinvest Corporate City.

Proposed renaming

On December 18, 2008, House Bill No. 5659 was filed by seven lawmakers, seeking to rename the road's segment in Las Piñas to General Edilberto Evangelista Avenue, in honor of the general who fought during the Philippine Revolution.

Intersections

Intersections in the list below are arranged by kilometer number, based on numbers on kilometer stones from Rizal Park in Manila, the Kilometer Zero.

Landmarks

This is from the road's western end in Bacoor, Cavite, to its eastern end in Muntinlupa: