Stumped by the slow progress of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) in building the vital 1.2-kilometer Connector road linking the eight-kilometer North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to SMC’s 18-kilometer Skyway Stage 3, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) now wants to build the connector road itself while looking for an alternative alignment that can cross the Pasig River.
“We don’t want to be held hostage by the connector,” MPTC chief financial officer Chris Lizo told reporters in an inspection tour Thursday, December 1.
While the 1.2 km connector road is not part of MPTC’s original concession and will cost at least P2 billion to build, the company has written to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) a couple of weeks ago, seeking approval for the undertaking.
“We’re willing to do the interconnection,” Lizo maintained. Toll Regulatory Board can amend its concession agreement with SMC to allow this.
The 1.2 km connector road, which is part of the detailed engineering design of the Skyway 3 project, will connect Section 2 of the NLEX Connector (España-PUP Sta. Mesa) to Skyway 3’s Plaza Dilao segment.
SMC signed a memorandum of agreement with the TRB and the DPWH to deliver the connector road by December 2020 but was delayed due to right-of-way issues.
SMC began work on the 1.2 km road in January 2021 and was supposed to finish it within 24 months.
The connector road is vital because it will allow the seamless travel of 5,000 vehicles per day – of which 3,000 will be Class 3 vehicles, or trucks, from the Port Area to the southern parts of Metro Manila, according to Lizo.
While waiting for the DPWH’s response, he said MPTC would look for an alternative alignment that would allow it to cross the Pasig River.
The NLEX Connector Road is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the DPWH and Metro Pacific-led NLEX Corp.
NLEX Corp. is a unit of the MPTC, the toll road arm of the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC).
The NLEX Connector is a four-lane, all-vehicle class elevated expressway. It spans eight kilometers and terminates at the vicinity of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Sta. Mesa, Manila.
It passes through Tondo, Sta. Cruz, Sampaloc, and Sta. Mesa in Manila has three interchanges located at C3 Road/5th Avenue in Caloocan, España Boulevard, and R. Magsaysay Boulevard, Manila.
The NLEX Connector project runs mostly above the alignment of the Philippine National Railways (PNR).
The project will cut travel time from NLEX to South Luzon by at least 60 percent.
