It was named for philanthropist Doña Julia Vargas de Ortigas, wife of Ortigas & Company Limited Partnership founder Don Francisco Ortigas y Barcinas who owned the Hacienda de Mandaloyon estate on which Ortigas Center was built.[1][2]
Route description
The intersection of Julia Vargas Avenue and F. Ortigas Jr. Road (Emerald Avenue)
Julia Vargas Avenue originates at an intersection with C-5 Road, also known as E. Rodriguez, Jr. Avenue, where SM Center Pasig is located. It heads west across Valle Verde. Between the next intersection at Lanuza Avenue and City Golf, Vargas serves as the boundary between Valle Verde 3 and 4 villages. It passes the Ortigas Home Depot, a Sitel call center building, and a row of bars on the northern side before it comes to an intersection with Meralco Avenue and the Meralco flyover.
West of Meralco Avenue, the avenue officially enters the Ortigas Center business district. It passes the office towers in San Antonio, Pasig toward the border with Barangay Wack-Wack Greenhills, Mandaluyong at the intersection with ADB Avenue and San Miguel Avenue where the El Pueblo Real de Manila strip mall is located. This span of Julia Vargas Avenue onwards used to contain one-way unprotected bike lanes, which has since become faded.
The Ortigas Walkways Project, a series of elevated pedestrian walkways, covers the span of Julia Vargas Avenue within San Antonio.[3]
From ADB and San Miguel to Bank and St. Francis, Vargas is one-way westbound only, with the left side of the road only allowing left turns to St. Francis Street, while the right side of the road continues as a service road and allows right turns to Bank Drive. Here, at the western edge of Ortigas Center, is St. Francis Square Mall, San Miguel Corporation Headquarters, and SM Megamall, where the avenue ends at EDSA as a two-way carriageway.
Development
Carpool lanes
The road was previously a six-lane divided avenue with no bike lanes until 2018, when an experimental road diet was implemented, changing the corridor into a widened four-lane (two lanes per direction) divided avenue with one-way bike lanes with bollards. On each direction, one lane acted as a carpool lane for at least four passengers per vehicle, while the other was designated as a non-carpool lane.[4]
This traffic scheme has since been rescinded due to it being confusing for motorists. Despite this, the lane markings remain, with vehicle traffic during rush hours largely ignoring the lane markings, informally reverting the avenue back into its six-lane (three lanes per direction) state.
Motorcycle and bike lanes
In March 2021, Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto announced that the avenue would undergo another road diet, shrinking the two car lanes and adding a motorcycle lane parallel to the bike lane. The bike lane will also be physically separated by plant boxes.[5]
AH 26 (N1) (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) in Mandaluyong
N11 (Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue) in Pasig
