MPIC readies C5 Expressway bid

NLEx Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., is set to submit next month an unsolicited proposal to build a P50-billion elevated expressway along Circumferential Road 5, connecting Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City to Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway or Cavitex.

“We are finalizing the feasibility study. Maybe, we will submit it by July to the Department of Public Works and Highways,” NLEX president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said.

“Before, it was under TRB [Toll Regulatory Board]. It was an extension of our franchise. Now, it will be unsolicited. But because it will now be unsolicited, we have to refine the study,” he said.

Franco earlier said the company needed to complete first the P8.6-billion NLEx-C5 Link project before undertaking a new elevated expressway along C5 under an unsolicited mode.

The 7.85-kilometer NLEx-C5 Link will start from the end of Segment 8.1 of North Luzon Expressway at Mindanao Ave. and end at Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.

The C5 Link aims to decongest Metro Manila as it would provide alternative access to mainline North Luzon Expressway further east of Metro Manila, bypassing Edsa and Balintawak toll plaza.
http://www.thestandard.com.ph/business/biz-plus/240268/mpic-readies-c5-expressway-bid.html

DOTr to mark 5 stations of Manila-Clark railway project

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will lead Monday (June 26) the Station Marking of five stations of the Manila-Clark Railway Project, the line that will connect Manila to Central Luzon.

The 106-km railway project running from Tutuban, Manila to Clark, Pampanga, is among the high-impact projects of President Rodrigo Duterte under the government’s ‘Build Build Build’ infrastructure program.

Five of the 17 stations will be marked in a ceremony:
• Marilao
• Meycauayan
• Valenzuela
• Caloocan
• Tutuban

“This project used to be just something spoken about. But under the Duterte administration, we will make this dream come true,” DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said, in Filipino. “For the first time, a rail project will connect Manila to Central Luzon and it will be completed under the Duterte administration.”

With this rail project, the 2-hour travel time from Manila to Clark will be cut down to just 55 minutes. The rail system stands to benefit 350,000 passengers daily on its first year of operations.

Apart from the marked stations, the 12 other stations are: Solis, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Malolos, Calumpit, Apalit, San Fernando, Angeles, Clark, Clark International Airport, and the proposed New Clark City in Pampanga.

Philippine National Railways (PNR) General Manager Junn Magno said the project is seen to decongest Metro Manila and spread economic gains throughout the country.

“This project will ease traffic congestion and help thousands of commuters coming from Bulacan and Pampanga who travel daily to their workplaces or schools in Metro Manila,” Magno said.

According to the DOTr, the project will start construction in the last quarter of 2017 and will be completed by the last quarter of 2021.

The project costs P255 billion and will be funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Japan. The whole line will have 13 train sets with eight cars or coaches per train set. Each train can reach a maximum speed of 120 km per hour.

Marilao, Meycauayan, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Tutuban railway stations to be marked

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will lead Monday, June 26, the marking of the five stations of the Manila-Clark Railway Project, the line that will connect Manila to Central Luzon.

The five of the 17 stations that will be marked in a ceremony include Marilao and Meycauayan in Bulacan, Valenzuela, Caloocan, and Tutuban in Metro Manila. The 12 other stations are: Solis, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Malolos, Calumpit, Apalit, San Fernando, Angeles, Clark, Clark International Airport, and the proposed New Clark City in Pampanga.

The 106-km railway project that will run from Tutuban, Manila to Clark, Pampanga is among the high-impact projects of President Rodrigo Duterte under the government’s ‘Build Build Build’ infrastructure program.

“Itong malaking proyektong ito, dati ay usap-usapan lang. Ngunit sa administrasyong Duterte, gagawin natin itong katotohanan,” DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said. “For the first time, a rail project will connect Manila to Central Luzon and it will be completed under the Duterte administration.”

With this rail project, the two-hour travel time from Manila to Clark will be cut down to just 55 minutes. The rail system stands to benefit 350,000 passengers daily on its first year of operations.

Philippine National Railways (PNR) General Manager Junn Magno said the project is seen to decongest Metro Manila and spread economic gains throughout the country.

“This project will ease traffic congestion and help thousands of commuters coming from Bulacan and Pampanga who travel daily to their workplaces or schools in Metro Manila,” Magno said.

According to the DOTr, the project will start construction in the last quarter of 2017 and will be completed by the last quarter of 2021 (initial phase).

The project costs PHP 255 billion (105 billion for Tutuban-Malolos, 150 billion for Malolos-Clark) and will be funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Japan. The whole line will have 13 train sets with eight cars or coaches per train set. Each train can reach a maximum speed of 120 km per hour.

LRT-MRT common station set for groundbreaking In September

The construction of the common station that will connect the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) will start earlier than expected or exactly one year after the dispute that had stalled the project for seven years due to cost overruns and alleged corruption had been resolved.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the government is now gearing up for the groundbreaking of the Common Station project in September, which he had originally moved to August from the December target.

Expected to be operational by April 2019, the common station that will link LRT Line 1 and MRT Lines 3 and 7 is a joint project of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH), Universal LRT Corporation (BVI) Limited of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC), Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC), North Triangle Depot Commercial Corporation (NTDCC), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA).

“I have talked to some people about the common station. It’s supposed to break ground in December. That is what we announced. But after talking to some leaders in government including in Congress, more or less, we already agreed that the common station will be built based in DOTr’s recommendation,” Tugade told Business Bulletin.

“Originally, I want to ground break that in August but they said it’s the ghost month. So we decided to move it to September,” he added.

Ghost month is a Chinese festival celebrated on the seventh month of the lunar calendar or in August. During this time, investors, mostly Chinese, avoid doing major investment decisions.

It was in January this year when the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the common station project has been finally signed after being stalled for many years.

The Common Station project was first brought to the table in 2009. Shortly after that, SMPH forged a R200-million contract with LRTA for the station to be built in front of The Annex at SM City North EDSA.

Four years later, the DOTr, formerly the Department of Transportation and Telecommunications (DOTC), came up with a decision to instead build the station near Ayala Land, Inc.’s Trinoma mall, a decision that was eventually disputed by SMPH.

The dispute led to a Supreme Court order temporarily stopping the development of the project and was eventually shelved.

The Common Station at the TriNoma will connect the LRT-1, MRT-3, and the future MRT-7 line. The project will also involve construction of head-to-head platforms for LRT 1 and MRT 3 with a 147.4-meter elevated “walkalator” to MRT 7 on North Avenue.

On November 21, 2013, former President Benigno Aquino III and his Cabinet approved seven infrastructure projects worth more than P100 billion, including the construction of a common station that would link Metro Manila’s two overhead train services near the TriNoma mall in Quezon City.

Approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board were the P62.7-billion Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT 7) project; P64.9-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) South Extension Project; and the P1.4-billion LRT Line 1 North Extension Project.

LRT 1 currently runs from Baclaran to Roosevelt in Quezon City, while the MRT 3 runs from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City.