CCLEX: Eight Crosses, 8.9 Kilometers, and the Mangroves They Bent the Bridge Around
The longest bridge in the Philippines carries eight lit crosses and a route bent around the mangroves. What Cebu built, what it costs to cross, and the pedestrian lane you can walk for free. Checked August 2026.
At night the two pylons carry eight lit crosses, forty meters each, four to a tower, and they are visible from most of the Mactan Channel before you are anywhere near the toll plaza. That is the first thing to understand about the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway. It is a tollway, and it was also built to be looked at.
It is the longest bridge in the Philippines at 8.9 kilometers, it cost ₱33 billion, and it turned a two to three hour crawl from the south of Cebu City out to Cordova into a crossing of about ten minutes. Those are the numbers people repeat. The more interesting ones are further down.
Why the bridge is longer than it needed to be
The route bends. It could have run straighter and shorter, and it does not, because the alignment was pushed around the mangroves rather than through them. The bridge is longer than the engineering required because of what was already growing in the channel.
Most of it was built by Cebuano hands. Foreign consultants trained the crews and the stay cables were shipped in from France, but the workforce that put it up was local, and it went up through the pandemic. It is designed for a hundred years of service.
That combination is why Cebuanos talk about this bridge the way they do. It is not borrowed. The skills stayed on the island.
The eight crosses
Each pylon stands 145 meters and carries four crosses, one on each face, forty meters from top to bottom. They were lit in April 2021 and blessed by the Archbishop of Cebu, and they mark five hundred years since Christianity arrived in the Philippines. Magellan’s party planted a cross on Cebu soil in March 1521 and baptised Rajah Humabon and Queen Juana not long after. Cebu has been the cradle of the faith in this country ever since, and the bridge says so from a hundred meters up.
The crosses carry no corpus. That is deliberate. Without a body they read as ecumenical rather than specifically Catholic, which is a careful decision for a piece of public infrastructure that everyone has to drive through whatever they believe.
The pylons themselves were drawn from the Magellan’s Cross Pavilion, the small domed structure in downtown Cebu City that houses the 1521 cross. Once you have stood in the pavilion, the shape at the top of each tower stops being an abstract crossbeam. The toll plaza canopy carries the eight-rayed sun of the Philippine flag on the same logic.
There is no other bridge in the country that looks like this, and the reason is that nothing about it was chosen from a catalog.
What it actually is
CCLEX runs 8.9 kilometers from the South Road Properties in Cebu City to Cordova on Mactan Island. It is the longest bridge in the Philippines.
That figure is worth pinning down, because a lot of pages still say 8.6 or 8.5 kilometers, and this site said 8.6 until today. The expressway’s own operator publishes 8.9, and that is the number used here.
The rest of the specification, for anyone who likes knowing what they are standing on:
- Main span: 390 meters, cable-stayed
- Pylons: 145 meters, twin towers
- Navigational clearance: 51 meters, so shipping passes underneath
- Deck width: 27 meters, two lanes in each direction
- Opened to the public: 30 April 2022
What CCLEX costs
Rates below took effect 1 October 2025, the last adjustment published by the Local Toll Regulatory Council. Checked August 2026.
| Class | What it covers | Toll |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1M | Motorcycles 110cc to 399cc | ₱68 |
| Class 1 | Motorcycles 400cc and above, cars, jeeps, pickups, small vans | ₱107 |
| Class 2 | Light trucks, buses, high-roof vans | ₱214 |
| Class 3 | Heavy trucks, multi-axle trucks, trailers | ₱321 |
That is one way. A return trip in a car is ₱214, which is worth knowing before it surprises you at the far end.
When the October 2025 rates landed, CCLEX waived the increase for three months for Class 1M riders on RFID and for public utility vehicles, holding them at ₱65 and ₱200. That relief period has lapsed. If you are quoted ₱65 on a small bike today, take it, but do not plan around it.
Bring an RFID. The toll is collected electronically and the lanes are built for it. Cash still moves, but slowly, and the queue at the Cordova plaza on a Sunday afternoon is the one part of this crossing that can cost you more time than the old route did.
Motorcycles are allowed, from 110cc
This is the question the expressway gets asked most, and the answer has changed once already.
CCLEX opened to motorcycles of 400cc and above. Since September 2022 the floor has been 110cc, which covers most of the small bikes actually on Cebu roads. Anything under 110cc is still turned away, along with tricycles.
Riders use the outermost lane and are expected to hold it. The bridge is exposed for its whole length and the crosswind over the main span is not theoretical.
The free part: you can walk or cycle it
CCLEX has a dedicated pedestrian and bicycle lane, physically separated from traffic, and it costs nothing. It has become a genuine fitness route: people run the span and back as a training loop, and on a clear morning it is the best public viewpoint over the Mactan Channel that does not require a boat or a drone.
Hours are 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with last entry at 4:30 PM. Those hours have held since the lane opened in 2023, but CCLEX posts same-day changes to its Facebook page and does occasionally push the opening back. Check the morning you go rather than trusting any page, including this one.
What is not allowed on the lane, which is worth reading before you pack:
- No drones. This one catches photographers out, and it is enforced.
- No skateboards, scooters or other small-wheeled devices.
- No pets, no fishing rods, no kites.
- No alcohol, and nobody under the influence.
- No climbing, leaning on or crossing the barriers, and no U-turns.
- Children need to be taller than three feet.
Bring water. There is no shade anywhere on the span and the surface holds heat well past sunset.
Suroy Arcade · Interactive · Cebu
How well do you really know Cebu?
Ten questions on the places, the food and the ferries. Which town owns Hagnaya Port. What is inside a pusô. Which city the airport is actually in.
Free · No sign up · Built for phones
How long it takes
Ten minutes or so by car at the limit, longer if the Cordova plaza is backed up. On foot the full 8.9 kilometers one way is a two-hour walk at an ordinary pace, which is why most people turn around at the main span rather than committing to the whole crossing. Runners treat the span and back as the standard out-and-back.
Getting on it
From Cebu City, the approach runs through the South Road Properties. From Mactan, it is signposted from Cordova and from the Lapu-Lapu side. The pedestrian and bike lane is entered at the Cordova end.
If you are flying out of Mactan-Cebu International, CCLEX is not automatically the faster route to the terminal. It lands you in Cordova, which is the far side of Mactan from the airport. For the airport, the Marcelo Fernan bridge is often still the better call. For a resort on the Cordova or southern Mactan side, CCLEX wins outright.
The bridge also carries the bike leg of the IRONMAN 70.3 Lapu-Lapu course, which is the one day of the year the whole span belongs to people on two wheels. On the Cordova side you are ten minutes from the reason half of Cebu drives out here anyway, which is lechon.
Watch · The longest and the tallest
Two bridges in one clip. CCLEX is the longest in the country at 8.9 kilometers. The Agas-Agas Bridge in Sogod, Southern Leyte is the tallest, with 89 meters of ravine under the deck.
Questions people actually ask
How much is the CCLEX toll?
₱107 for a car, ₱68 for a motorcycle between 110cc and 399cc, ₱214 for a light truck or bus and ₱321 for a heavy truck. Rates took effect 1 October 2025 and were checked in August 2026.
Can motorcycles use CCLEX?
Yes, from 110cc. Anything smaller, and tricycles, are not allowed. Riders use the outermost lane.
Is there a bike lane on CCLEX?
Yes, and it is free. A separated pedestrian and bicycle lane runs the length of the expressway, open 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM with last entry at 4:30 PM.
How long is CCLEX?
8.9 kilometers, which makes it the longest bridge in the Philippines.
Can you fly a drone from the CCLEX bike lane?
No. Drones are on the prohibited list for the pedestrian and bike lane.
How long does it take to cross CCLEX?
About ten minutes by car. On foot the full length one way is roughly two hours.
Suroy Run · Interactive · CCLEX
Cebu City is 8.9 km up the CCLEX. Start running.
Collect lechons along the way, the light shifts from golden hour to full night as you close in, and the shirt changes every 250 meters. The board keeps the longest run.
Play Suroy Run
