‘Christmas and future cheers for Northern Luzon motorists’

My wife and I took an early Christmas trip to Baguio last week. What used to be a drive of more than six hours took only four hours. Adding the usual leisurely break we often made at the half-way mark, the trip was five hours in all.

“The express route.” We started our seamless journey northward from Manila on the NLEX (Northern Luzon Expressway) and ended this fast route in Rosales, Pangasinan. By this time, the half-way mark to Baguio had been reached. From there, we traveled on the usual national highway system and pushed up-the-mountain through Kennon Road.

Actually, as NLEX ended in the Clark area, we branched on to the portion of SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) from Clark that led to Tarlac. At that point, a new expressway began northward – the TPLEX (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway). The only interruptions we had on these fast routes were the toll booths that we had to dutifully go through to pay our way.

The new highway is of good engineering construction though the terrain, like the length of NLEX, traverses the flatlands of the province of Tarlac. From an engineering viewpoint, this is not challenging, but good quality of road bed means high quality of ride.

This expressway is no longer totally new for those in the know. Early last year, the first segments of the highway were opened to traffic. I had taken that road then. But the first time that I experience passing by Tarlac province on an expressway was on this trip. We did not have to encounter local town traffic.

In my personal experience since the NLEX was finished decades ago, the calvary of travel to Baguio were the crowded and narrow roads of Tarlac. They took a lot of slow driving through.

“The TPLEX.” The improved travel time is, therefore, due to the TPLEX. This, when finished under its present plan, would be 88.85 kilometers of four-lane expressway – two lanes in each direction like the NLEX and SCTEX. These three expressways, therefore, form the fast lanes of equal travel specifications north of Manila.

As planned, the TPLEX begins from Tarlac City at the southernmost part and ends in Rosario, La Union. The project is built by the Private Infra Development Corporation (PIDC), as a public-private partnership with the government. This is an all-Filipino owned consortium led by the San Miguel Corporation and the D.M. Consunji group.

Construction of the road started in 2010 and it proceeded steadily. By early 2013, the first segments of the road were opened for public use. The segments that we travelled on consisted of around 50 kilometers of finished expressway.

A day after our return to Manila, an additional 14 kilometers of expressway was opened – the segment that covered Rosales to Urdaneta in the province. Had we been able to use that additional roadway, our trip could have been even shorter by a margin.

The expressway shows high quality of engineering capacity. However, I was constantly irritated by a sense of aesthetics unrelated to travel. This concerned the designated rest areas to enable any motorist to stop on the highway. Why did they employ the words “Lay-By” when “Rest Area” is not only sufficient but more accurate? Imagine how Filipinos will pronounce these English words!

“Road-building finance.” All the previous expressway projects of the government were built with public resources as the seed investment. SLEX, NLEX, and SCTEX were all built with public money when they were first constructed.

To expedite finance, most of them involved in part external borrowing through external development assistance. Japan’s development assistance program was a major source of long-term finance.

Though funded by public resources (including borrowed funds in the name of the republic), these expressways were designed as toll roads to make possible the recovery of investments and help expand the road system.

In the beginning, the government undertook the management of the toll roads. Experience under this setup was not satisfactory. Road maintenance was poor and collections also were inadequate.

Eventually, the government decided to get the private sector involved directly in the management of the toll system. Private capital was invited to invest in the maintenance, improvements, and repair of these roads. In turn, they were given the opportunity to manage the toll system.

The TPLEX was originally planned as a two-lane highway, but it was upgraded into a four-lane highway. Per the DPWH website, though the cost of the expanded project rose to P19 billion, it enabled savings since the original two-lane estimate was P11.6 billion. Actual costs of construction have apparently exceeded these estimates.

The road project is being undertaken through a “build, transfer and operate” (BTO) mechanism under the BOT Law. Under this scheme, the project proponent undertakes the design, financing, and construction of the highway system. As each section of the toll road system is completed, it is turned over to the government. In turn , the government grants the proponent the franchise to collect toll, operate and maintain the road.

Three local banks underwrote the full financing for the TPLEX project: BDO, the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank. The project is unique in the sense that all banks are domestic institutions. There is no outside resources involved.

Of course, two of the banks are government-owned financial institutions, but they provide their financing mainly from investment resources fully funded from domestic sources.

“Widening of MacArthur Highway -- another help.” Another factor contributing to the easing of traffic going to northern Luzon is the widening of MacArthur Highway.

The road beyond Urdaneta, Pangasinan today still has to be on the widened MacArthur Highway on the way northwards. The Pangasinan segment is not totally widened though.

Last year, as road work was taking place in earnest, the government discontinued parts of the road widening in response to public demand to stop the cutting of condemned old trees to make way for the road construction. The road segments affected are fortunately only short stretches, and the highway is essentially widened.

My email is: [email protected]. Visit this site for more information, feedback and commentary: http://econ.upd.edu.ph/gpsicat/