Eton Properties Philippines, Inc.

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT -
ETON CITY SQUARE PROJECT AT STA. ROSA, LAGUNA

TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDY

AUGUST 2019

PREPARED FOR: PREPARED BY:

Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. De La Salle University

8F Philippine National Bank 6754 Alerik Ezekiel C. Ruiz
Ayala Avenue, Makati City, 2401 Taft Ave, Malate,
Philippines Manila, 1004 Metro Manila,
Philippines
Tel: +632 548 4000
Tel: +632 524 4611
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TRAFFIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT-

ETON CITY SQUARE PROJECT AT STA. ROSA, LAGUNA
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary............................................................................................................. - 1 -
1.1 Site Location and Study Area ........................................................................................... - 1 -
1.2 Development Description .................................................................................................. - 1 -
1.3 Types of Studies Undertaken ........................................................................................... - 1 -
1.4 Main Findings .................................................................................................................... - 2 -
1.5 Conclusions and Recommendation .................................................................................. - 2 -
2. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... - 2 -
2.1 Purpose of study ............................................................................................................... - 2 -
2.2 General Project Description .............................................................................................. - 2 -
2.3 Study area, roadway network and intersections............................................................... - 3 -
2.4 Design hours and design horizons ................................................................................... - 5 -
3. Traffic Analyses ................................................................................................................... - 5 -
3.1 Existing traffic volumes and peak hours traffic volumes .................................................. - 5 -
3.2 Design hour traffic volumes .............................................................................................. - 7 -
3.3 Site generated traffic volumes .......................................................................................... - 7 -
3.4 Combined traffic volumes in buildup year and design horizon ........................................ - 7 -
4. Capacity and Level of Service Analyses ............................................................................. - 9 -
4.1 Capacity and LOS Analysis for the study freeway sections for all scenarios .................. - 9 -
4.2 Capacity and LOS Analysis for the study roadway sections for all scenarios ............... - 10 -
5. Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................................. - 11 -
6. References ........................................................................................................................ - 11 -
7. Appendix ............................................................................................................................ - 12 -
7.1 Site Plan .......................................................................................................................... - 12 -
7.2 Traffic Analysis Worksheets............................................................................................ - 13 -
7.3 Capacity Analysis worksheets ........................................................................................ - 15 -
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Site Location in Open-Street map ............................................................................... - 1 -
Figure 2 Proposed Development Project-Eton City Square...................................................... - 3 -
Figure 3 Road Network of Study Area ....................................................................................... - 4 -
Figure 4 Road Network to be Analyzed in TIA .......................................................................... - 4 -
Figure 5 Traffic Volume for 2015 AM......................................................................................... - 6 -
Figure 6 Traffic Volume for 2015 PM......................................................................................... - 6 -
Figure 7 Traffic Generation Index for Commerial/Retail per sq.m. ........................................... - 7 -
Figure 8 Level of Service for Basic Freeways ........................................................................... - 9 -
Figure 9 Level of Service for Urban Street Roadways ............................................................ - 10 -

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Design Hours and Horizons .......................................................................................... - 5 -
Table 2 Traffic Volumes for Buildup Years ................................................................................ - 8 -
Table 3 Density (pc/km/ln) comparison for the Freeways of the Study Area ............................ - 9 -
Table 4 Level of Service comparison for the Roadways of the Study Area ............................ - 10 -
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1. Executive Summary
1.1 Site Location and Study Area
The proposed development project site is located at Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Philippines, at
the yellow circle seen at Figure 1. It is a developing urban area, with the site’s surrounding area
filled with residential and other commercial establishments. The study area would consist of the
major road network of Sta. Rosa Laguna and its neighbors. Furthermore, the Traffic Impact
Assessment would analyze the road networks within a one-kilometer radius from the site
location.

Figure 1 Site Location in Open-Street map

1.2 Development Description

Proposed Development project is a commercial retail mall with a total floor area of forty
thousand square meters. It is developed by Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. to complement
Eton City, another property developed by the same company. The project is connected to both a
major freeway and a municipal roadway.

1.3 Types of Studies Undertaken

A level of service based Traffic Impact Assessment was used in the study. INRO
EMME4 software was used to simulating the vehicular traffic flow of the study area. A calibration
of vehicular traffic was done to ensure a realistic simulation. The calibration was based from
DPWH 2015 Annual Daily Traffic Volume count on 2015 of the South Luzon Expressway
(SLEX).
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1.4 Main Findings

The Traffic Impact Assessment found the following effects of the proposed development
project to the surrounding road networks:
1. Decrease of average speed of 10-20 kph on the surrounding roadways.
2. Increase of vehicle density on the surrounding freeways.
3. Lowered Level of Service of surrounding road networks, but not severely (did not
lower the LOS to a level of F).
4. Proposed development project attracted at least 1684 vehicle trips and generated 740
vehicle trips.

1.5 Conclusions and Recommendation

The proposed development project, Eton City Square, would have a negative impact to
the surrounding road networks by decreasing their Level of Service, and average speed by 10-
20 kilometers per hour, and increasing total vehicular volume. Retrofitting and widening of
surrounding roads is highly recommended in addition to allocation of traffic enforcers by either
the project managers, local government or both.

2. Introduction
2.1 Purpose of study
The purpose of this study is to access the Traffic Impact of the project development to
see its affect to the vehicular traffic network of the study area in terms of level of service. The
study would only determine and record problems or fields that need attention. Furthermore, this
study does not aim to fix or provide solutions to the problems that are found during the
assessment.
In addition, the study would not analyze the effect of the proposed development to the
road network’s safety issues and environmental pollution.

2.2 General Project Description

The proposed development project is a commercial retail mall called “Eton City Square”.
It boasts a total of forty-thousand square meters of total floor area. It is developed by Eton
Properties Philippines, Inc., owned by Lucio Tan. It is envisioned to become the go-to place for
recreation and leisure of both locals and visitors of the town. It is also constructed to
complement Eton City, a 600-hectare township. The planned retail space would also add to the
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aesthetics of the town with its design that can be seen in Figure 2. The proposed development
project would also include parks and green areas for pop-up markets and local activities.
Furthermore, it would include shopping, dining, entertainment establishments, and a
supermarket. The proposed development is predicted to have large vehicular and foot traffic
due to its location.

Figure 2 Proposed Development Project-Eton City Square

2.3 Study area, roadway network and intersections

The study area is the province of Laguna in Philippines. Specifically, the study area
covers Sta.Rosa, Laguna and a part of its neighboring cities. The study area is only limited to
the road networks and area that can be seen in Figure 3. The study area is filled with varying
types of roadways such as freeways, multilane roadways and arterial roads. The study only
considers major road networks, neglecting the effect of arterial roads. Furthermore, the
analyzed road network for the Traffic Impact Assessment are roads that are within one-
kilometer radius from the proposed development site location, which can be seen Figure 4.
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Figure 3 Road Network of Study Area

Figure 4 Road Network to be Analyzed in TIA

The study area can be considered as a developing urban space, as the surrounding
area of the development site is filled with other retailing centers and few residential villages. The
development site is adjacent to the major freeway, SLEX. Part of the plan of the proposed
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development site is to have a roadway connecting the freeway into the mall itself. Then another
that would be connected to the road of the network, closed off for vehicles coming from the
freeway but open for both pedestrians and delivery trucks.

2.4 Design hours and design horizons

The population used from the study is from the year 2015, the proposed development
would be completed somewhere in the year 2020, and the Traffic Impact Assessment design
horizon would be 20 years into the future, from the current year, 2019. It will be at the year
2039.
The design hours with respect to their corresponding horizons would be based from the
following:
Table 1 Design Hours and Horizons

Design Hours
Design Horizons
For AM For PM

2015 11:00 – 12:00 17:00 – 18:00

2020 11:00 – 12:00 17:00 – 18:00

2039 11:00 – 12:00 17:00 – 18:00

3. Traffic Analyses
3.1 Existing traffic volumes and peak hours traffic volumes
Existing traffic volumes occupied mostly the major freeways and highways of the study
area, except for two road links between the two freeway and major highway. The traffic volume
above has been adjusted accordingly to DPWH AADT data. The highest traffic volume is seen
along SLEX freeway and along the South Manila Road highway. The proposed site
development would be built beside the SLEX freeway, so the existing traffic volume for
roadways within one kilometer would see a drastic change in level of service and volume.
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Figure 5 Traffic Volume for 2015 AM

Figure 6 Traffic Volume for 2015 PM

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3.2 Design hour traffic volumes

The generated volumes of the study is already based on the peak hours of the study
area. The generated volumes need no further calibration because the peak hour has already
been accounted for.

3.3 Site generated traffic volumes

The proposed development project has a total floor area of forty thousand square
meters. Also, it is of a commercial type of building. According to the given trip generation index
given in Figure 7, the site would generate 740 trips and attract 1684 trips. This was done by
multiplying the coefficient above to the total floor area of the proposed development project.

Figure 7 Traffic Generation Index for Commerial/Retail per sq.m.

3.4 Combined traffic volumes in buildup year and design horizon

The proposed development project will finish construction somewhere in the year 2020,
and that this Traffic Impact Analysis was done in 2019. The build up years analyzed are the
year 2020 and 2039, with and without the proposed development project.
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Table 2 Traffic Volumes for Buildup Years

The traffic volume for years with the project saw an increase of more than double the
original traffic volume. With the biggest increase at links 5162 – 5476, 5476 – 5229,and 5529 –
98. Furthermore, the roadway to the project site would saw a traffic volume of atleast 460
vehicles, for the year 2020, to 2078 vehicles at the year 2039.
Given these, existing roadways near the site would benefit in a retrofit before the design
years. The large traffic volume attracted by the proposed development site might overload the
capacities of existing roadways. The major freeway near the proposed development site would
need the retrofitting the most or risk of creating a queue that goes on along the freeway.
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4. Capacity and Level of Service Analyses

4.1 Capacity and LOS Analysis for the study freeway sections for all scenarios
The Level of Service (LOS) for the freeways covered by the study area was not analyzed
because of the limitations brought upon the used software. The LOS classification of the
Highway Capacity Manual of where the TIA is referenced upon requires the whole length of the
freeway in question. Unfortunately, the whole length of the freeway is not simulated, therefore
the TIA did not assess the LOS of surrounding and affected freeway.

Figure 8 Level of Service for Basic Freeways

Table 3 Density (pc/km/ln) comparison for the Freeways of the Study Area
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However, based on the simulated densities of the freeways from the simulation program,
which can be seen at Table 2, the project significantly increased the vehicular densities of the
affected surrounding freeways. Therefore, widening and/or retrofitting of the freeways affected is
highly recommended to avoid congestion and unwanted queues.

4.2 Capacity and LOS Analysis for the study roadway sections for all scenarios
For the capacity of roadways, the classifiers in Figure 9 was used. In addition, the
roadway present in the study is of Urban Street Class IV and based on the speeds gathered
from the simulation.

Figure 9 Level of Service for Urban Street Roadways

Table 4 Level of Service comparison for the Roadways of the Study Area
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Based on the Level of Service analysis, the project is shown to have a negative impact
to the LOS of surrounding road networks. The roadways affected saw a decrease of 10-20
kilometers per hour in average vehicular speed. Furthermore, most of the roadways created to
connect the project saw Level of Service “C”, as can be seen in Table 4, indicating high
congestion and slow average speeds in those roadways. Not yet accounting the delay brought
on by the loading areas of the roadways, where passengers get on and off the vehicles.
The roadways analyzed will benefit in a retrofit to increase their capacity. Furthermore,
the proposed development project management can allocate traffic enforcers surrounding the
area to decrease the likelihood of congestions. It is because by 2039, the heavy traffic volume
and low Level of Service might decrease the number of customers served by the project by
having a repelling effect to them. Low Level of Service might force some customers to find
alternatives to the proposed project, therefore decreasing the attraction and customers served
of the project.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

The proposed development project, Eton City Square, would decrease the Level of
Service of surrounding road networks indicating that the project would attract traffic. The
freeways surrounding the area would need an increase in the number of lanes to accommodate
the vehicular traffic attracted by the development project. Furthermore, the Project management
and the local government would benefit from a designated allocation of traffic enforcers to the
affected roadways.
The proposed development project negatively impacted the surrounding road networks
by attracting more vehicular traffic decreasing overall average speed of most of the roads.
However, the purpose of the project is not to improve the surrounding road networks. Instead its
purpose is to attract more vehicular traffic, which it does. Effective traffic management by both
the project developers and local government is highly recommended to maintain the
effectiveness of the surrounding road network and the proposed project.

6. References
Austria, J. B. (2018, April 9). Eton set to launch fourth project in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Retrieved
August 6, 2019, from http://manilastandard.net/business/corporate/262707/eton-set-to-
launch-fourth-project-in-sta-rosa-laguna.html
DPWH. (n.d.). Retrieved August 12, 2019, from http://dpwh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webapp
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viewer/index.html?id=e2cf12e43f1247b2a436c87033f8fbc9&fbclid=IwAR0sV475wbXFqgOL
gQ-klLfvrOUX2BMQgvf6Ohe17GIBmPHPDhCpEw8GdC0
Eton City Square: Sta. Rosa's newest neighborhood mall destination. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6,
2019, from https://eton.com.ph/eton-city-square-sta-rosas-newest-neighborhood-mall-
destination/
Transport Research Board. (n.d.). HCM 2000 Highway Capacity Manual. Retrieved July 30,
2019, from https://sjnavarro.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/highway_capacital_manual.pdf

7. Appendix
7.1 Site Plan
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7.2 Traffic Analysis Worksheets

Volume Worksheet Data for Freeways

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Density Worksheet Data for Freeways

Speed Worksheet Data for Roadways

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7.3 Capacity Analysis worksheets

LOS using Speed Worksheet Data for Roadways

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Categories for Classifications of Urban Street Roadways

LOS based on classifications of Urban Street Roadways

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LOS for basic freeways