18-km Laguna section of Calax to open in July

The 18-kilometer Laguna section of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway is set to open in July, according to its builder and operator.

“We are targeting to open the Laguna segment of Calax by July this year,” said Roberto Bontia, president of MPCala Holdings Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Bontia said the construction of the Laguna segment of Calax would be completed in June.

The toll for the Laguna segment, or from Mamplasan to Sta. Rosa section of Calax, is P4.50 per kilometer.

MPCala tapped local contractor DMCI Consunji Inc. to build the Laguna side of the 47-km Calax and Leighton Holdings of Australia to construct the Cavite side.

Calax, one of the largest public-private partnership projects, involves the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of a four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Cavitex (Manila–Cavite Expressway) and South Luzon Expressway.

The P35.43-billion expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEx-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.

The Laguna segment is a four-lane highway with four interchanges from Aguinaldo Interchange to the existing Mamplasan Interchange of South Luzon Expressway in Biñan, Laguna.

Once completed, Calax is expected to ease traffic between Cavite and Laguna, particularly along Aguinaldo Highway, Tagaytay–Santa Rosa Road and Governor’s Drive.

MPCala won a 35-year concession for the project, including the period of design and construction.

MPCala also secured the original proponent status from the Public Works Department for its unsolicited proposal to build the P22.43-billion Cavite-Batangas Expressway.

CTBex is a 49-kilometer expressway that will connect Cavite and Batangas, with a spur road to Tagaytay City and ultimately terminating in Nasugbu, with another spur road to Tuy, Batangas.

Once completed, the project would cut travel time from Sta. Rosa, Laguna to Nasugbu, Batangas from 2.5 hours to just an hour.

The project will start at Silang East Interchange of Cavite-Laguna Expressway. The alignment will traverse the towns of Silang, Amadeo, Mendez and Alfonso in Cavite, Tagaytay City and Nasugbu in Batangas.

MPTC is also constructing the P27.9-billion Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway project in the Visayas. The 8.25-km bridge project, set to be completed by 2020, will connect Cebu City to Mactan Island via Cordova.

The group is also building the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road, an elevated expressway to connect the northern and southern toll road systems at a cost of P23 billion.

http://manilastandard.net/business/biz-plus/289709/18-km-laguna-section-of-calax-to-open-in-july.html