Ortigas Avenue

Ortigas Avenue is a 12.1 km (7.5 mi) highway running from eastern Metro Manila to western Rizal in the Philippines. It is one of the busiest highways in Metro Manila, serving as the main thoroughfare of the metro's east–west corridor, catering mainly to the traffic to and from Rizal.

R-5 Ortigas Avenue
Looking west towards Ortigas Center from IPI
Route information
Maintained by Department of Public Works and Highways
Length	12.1 km (7.5 mi) Including extension from Pasig to Taytay
Component highways	R-5 R-5 from Quezon City to Pasig N60 from Quezon City to Taytay N184 in San Juan and Mandaluyong
Major junctions
West end	N184 (Bonny Serrano Avenue) at the Quezon City–San Juan boundary
Major intersections	AH 26 (N1) (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) N11 (Circumferential Road 5) N601 (Bonifacio Avenue) / Felix Avenue
East end	N60 (Corazon C. Aquino Avenue) / Taytay Diversion Road / L. Wood Street in Taytay
Location
Country	Philippines
Regions	Metro Manila, Calabarzon
Provinces	Rizal
Major cities	San Juan, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Pasig
Towns	Cainta, Taytay
Highway system
Roads in the Philippines Highways Expressways List

The western terminus of the highway is at the boundary of San Juan and Quezon City. The highway then traverses through Ortigas Center and along the cities of Mandaluyong, Quezon City, and Pasig, followed by the municipality of Cainta, and finally ending in the municipality of Taytay.

The portion of Ortigas Avenue from EDSA–Ortigas Interchange, Quezon City to the Buli Bridge at the Pasig–Cainta boundary is designated as Radial Road 5 (R-5).^[1] The highway is also designated as National Route 60 (N60) and National Route 184 (N184) of the Philippine highway network, respectively.

Etymology

The highway is named after Filipino lawyer and businessman Don Francisco Emilio Barcinas Ortigas Sr. (1875–1935), who was popularly known as "Don Paco", or simply as Francisco Ortigas. Ortigas is known for establishing a partnership between him and several businessmen (now Ortigas & Company) to purchase the 4,033 hectares (40.33 km²) Hacienda de Mandaluyon from the Augustinian Order in 1931, which now spans the cities of San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig, and Quezon City.^[2][3][4]

Route description

View of the avenue east towards Cainta from Rosario pedestrian overpass

Ortigas Avenue cuts eastwards from the city boundary of San Juan and Quezon City in Metro Manila to Antipolo in Rizal, passing through residential, industrial, and commercial areas, including Ortigas Center, its namesake central business district. Its section from Bonny Serrano Avenue to EDSA forms part of National Route 184 (N184), a secondary national road under the Philippine highway network. Meanwhile, the rest of the route east of EDSA forms part of National Route 60 (N60), a primary national road. Eastwards past the C5–Ortigas Interchange in Pasig, the avenue is called Ortigas Avenue Extension. Its section from Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue in Pasig to Felix Avenue at the Cainta Junction is officially known as Pasig–Cainta Road and forms part of the Manila East Road. From Cainta Junction to Kaytikling Rotunda in Taytay, it is alternatively known as Cainta-Kayticling-Antipolo-Teresa-Morong Road.

Ortigas Avenue starts as a physical continuation of Granada Street past Bonny Serrano Avenue at the boundary of San Juan and Quezon City. It then cuts through Greenhills, San Juan and northeast of Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong. It crosses EDSA at the EDSA–Ortigas Interchange at the boundary of Mandaluyong and Quezon City, making the highway goes back to Quezon City after it goes far away from San Juan-Quezon City border in Bonny Serrano Street, and runs through Ortigas Center, making a slight curve on Meralco Avenue. The avenue soon cuts through Ugong, enters Pasig, and crosses Circumferential Road 5 at the C5–Ortigas Interchange where the Bridgetowne is located. It soon crosses Marikina River and Manggahan Floodway which enters the barangay of Rosario, still in Pasig. The avenue partially becomes a single carriageway and changing back into a dual carriageway, and then enters the province of Rizal at Cainta, past SM City East Ortigas (formerly Ever Gotesco Ortigas).

It crosses Bonifacio and Felix Avenues at Cainta Junction. It then continues to Taytay and passes over the Kaytikling Rotunda with Taytay Diversion Road in Taytay, Rizal before continuing as Manila East Road.

Bicycle lanes

Most of the road from its intersection with Bonny Serrano Avenue to the Pasig–Cainta borde has Class II paint-separated one-way bicycle lanes as part of the Metropolitan Bike Lane Network.^[5] Additionally, the entire span of Ortigas Avenue from Bonny Serrano Avenue to Connecticut Street in San Juan has bollards as protection. However, these bollards are frequently damaged by motorists that intrude into the bicycle lanes, as the San Juan city government struggles to regularly replace damaged bollards since its implementation in 2020.^[6]

On August 18, 2023, San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora issued an advisory stating that the city has removed the bollards along the Ortigas Avenue bicycle lanes, to be replaced with cat eye markers. The advisory stated that this was done following a "thorough evaluation" conducted by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to "restore roads to their optimal capacity" due to "congestion and a reduction in road capacity".^[7]

Intersections

Kaytikling Rotunda in Taytay, Rizal

Province	City/Municipality	km[8]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Quezon City–San Juan boundary		9	5.6	Bonny Serrano Avenue	Traffic light intersection. Western terminus. Continues west as Granada Street.
San Juan				Xavier Street	Restricted eastbound access for North Greenhills. Former westbound access for heavy traffic in the Xavier School vicinity.
		9	5.6	Madison Street	Traffic light intersection. Access for North Greenhills and the Xavier School-ICA vicinity.
				Roosevelt Street	Traffic light intersection. No left turn on both sides. Access for North Greenhills and West Greenhills.
				Club Filipino Drive	Traffic light intersection. Provides access to the Greenhills Shopping Center.
		10	6.2	Wilson Street	Traffic light intersection. Provides access to the Greenhills Shopping Center.
San Juan–Mandaluyong boundary				Connecticut Street	Traffic light intersection. Access for West Greenhills and the Greenhills Shopping Center.
Mandaluyong				La Salle Street	Former westbound access to Greenhills East.
				Holy Cross Street	Former westbound access to Greenhills East.
		11	6.8	Notre Dame Street	Eastbound access only. Access for Wack-Wack Village.
				Columbia Street	Eastbound access served by a U-turn slot. Access for Greenhills East.
Mandaluyong–Quezon City boundary				AH 26 (N1) (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue)	EDSA–Ortigas Interchange. Traffic light intersection below interchange. Route number change from N184 to N60. Start of R-5 concurrency.
Quezon City				Arcadia Avenue	Westbound access only. Access for Arcadia Village.
				ADB Avenue	Eastbound access only. Traffic light intersection on the eastbound side.
				Zalameda Street	Westbound access only. Access for Corinthian Gardens.
Quezon City–Pasig boundary				E. Abello Street	Westbound access only.
Pasig		12.1	7.5	F. Ortigas Jr. Road	Eastbound access only.
				Meralco Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
				Gardner Street	Westbound access only. Access for Meralco Sports Club.
		13	8.1	Royal Palm Street	Eastbound access only. Access for Valle Verde IV.
				M. D. Camacho Road	Westbound access only.
				Lanuza Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
				Green Meadows Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
				Central Avenue	Eastbound access only.
		14	8.7	N11 (Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue)	Traffic light intersection under interchange.
				West Drive	Access from westbound service road only.
				Rosario Bridge over Marikina River
				Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue / ROTC Street	Left turns from westbound provided by U-turn under Rosario Bridge. Start of Manila East Road.
				Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Avenue	Right-in, right out. Left turns via U-turn slots.
		15	9.3	C. Raymundo Avenue / Tramo Street	Left turns provided by U-turn locations
		15.5	9.6	West Bank Road	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance. U-turn location used for left turns from Sixto Antonio and C. Raymundo intersections.
				Ortigas Bridge over Manggahan Floodway
				East Bank Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance.
				President Quezon Street	Westbound access only.
				De Castro Avenue	Eastbound access only.
				Pearl Street
				Melbourne Street
				Countryside Avenue
				Monaco Street
				Riverside Drive
				Saint Joseph Drive
				Kamagong Sur Street	Restricted westbound access.
				5th Avenue
Buli Creek				Cainta-Buli Bridge (End of R-5 concurrency)
Rizal	Cainta			Malinis Street	Westbound access only.
				Gloria Extension	Eastbound access only.
		18	11	N601 (Bonifacio Avenue) / Felix Avenue	Cainta Crossing. Traffic light intersection. End of Manila East Road (Rosario–Cainta Road) segment.
				Brookside Drive	Unsignaled intersection.
				Sunrise Drive
				Marlo Drive	Eastbound access only.
				Sunset Drive / J.G. Garcia Sr. Street	Access from opposite directions accessible via U-turn slot. Former traffic light intersection.
				Robin Street
		20	12	Hunters ROTC Guerilla Street
				Eagle Street	Westbound access only.
	Cainta–Taytay boundary			General A. Ricarte Street / Don Celso Tuason Street	Traffic light intersection.
				Sampaloc Street	Eastbound access only.
				Santol Street	Easttbound access only.
				Tanguille Street	Eastbound access only.
				Suburban Drive	Unsignaled intersection
	Taytay			Dao Street	Eastbound access only.
				Narra Street
				E. Rodriguez Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
				N. Pascual Street	Eastbound access only.
				Baltao Street
				Pearl Avenue	Eastbound access only.
				Palmera Avenue
		21	13	N60 (Corazon C. Aquino Avenue) / Taytay Diversion Road / L. Wood Street	Roundabout (Kaytiking Rotunda). Eastern terminus. End of N60 and R-5 designations.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access       Route transition

References

1. "Latest alignment of all radial and circumferential roads in Metro Manila". Freedom of Information Philippines. Department of Public Works and Highways. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
2. "Francisco Emilio Ortigas y Barcinas". Geni.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2022.
3. "The Most Influential and Enduring Families of the Philippines". Town and Country Magazine. November 24, 2016. Archived from the original on July 29, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
4. Calero, Javier (June 9, 2016). "The men behind Heneral Luna". Business World Online.
5. "List of all bike lanes based on DPWH classifications". Freedom of Information Philippines. August 25, 2022. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
6. Luna, Franco (April 8, 2022). "The Road Ahead: In San Juan, 'culture shift' among drivers needed for cyclists to thrive". The Philippine Star. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
7. Zamora, Francis (August 18, 2023). "Public Advisory". Facebook. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
8. "Road and Bridge Inventory". Department of Public Works and Highways. Retrieved July 31, 2020.

See also

• List of roads in Metro Manila

14°35′45″N 121°3′17″E