MANILA, Philippines — Construction of an expressway linking the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is expected to commence early next month as Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) was able to finalize the contractor for the connector road project.
MPTC-unit NLEX Corp. has tapped D.M. Consunji Inc., the construction arm of DMCI Holdings Inc., as the contractor for the first section of the NLEX-SLEX connector road project.
NLEX president and general manager Luigi Bautista said formal signing of the contract would happen this week and actual start of construction would commence by the second week of November.
“So between today and the second week of November, DMCI will start preparing for mobilization,” Bautista said.
“Actual start will be the first bored pile. When I say first bored pile, that’s the first work on the ground so that will be second week of November. And then construction will continue. It will be for 20 months,” he said.
The P23.3 billion NLEX-SLEX connector road project is an eight-kilometer all-elevated highway which would extend the NLEX southward from the end of Segment 10 in C3/5th Avenue, Caloocan City to PUP Sta. Mesa, Manila and connect to the Skyway Stage 3, mostly traversing the Philippine National Railways’ track.
It will include two interchanges located at C3 Road in Caloocan and España in Manila.
Bautista said the project would be undertaken in two phases, with the first phase consisting of the initial five-kilometer section starting from C3 Road in Caloocan City up to España in Manila.
He said the contractor for the second section covering the remaining three kilometers would be finalized by the first quarter of next year.
“We will open by phases. The second phase by next month we will start the bid process to select the contractor, so by around February next year we would have appointed also the contractor for Section 2,” Bautista said.
Once completed, the project is expected to decongest major thoroughfares and improve linkages between the north and south.
The groundbreaking for the project was held last February, which was two months ahead of its original May 2019 schedule.
Since then, NLEX has undertaken preliminary works such as ground survey, finalization of design, clearing of tree cutting, and clearing for informal settlers in preparation for the projects’s actual construction.
NLEX is currently implementing P7.7 billion worth of projects to help alleviate traffic congestion in Metro Manila and key areas of the NLEX-SCTEX network.
NLEX is part of the portfolio of projects of MPTC, the tollways arm of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investment Corp.