P23-B ‘connector road’ project awaits Aquino nod

President Aquino is set to decide on the implementation of a P23-billion “connector road” proposed by Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. that would link the company’s North Luzon Expressway (NLex) to the South Luzon Expressway (SLex), a senior government official said.

The latest plan eyed by the government calls for the dropping of the Swiss, or competitive, challenge mandated for the unsolicited proposal.

Metro Pacific will instead be required to form a joint venture with state-owned Philippine National Construction Corp., which holds the franchise for both NLex and SLex.

The final structure is now awaiting the approval of President Aquino, according to Rogelio Singson, secretary for the Department of Public Works and Highways, which oversees the connector road project.

“We will just wait for the directive from the OP [ office of the president],” Singson said in a text message.

Singson confirmed that a meeting was held last week, where the DPWH and other relevant agencies sought to address remaining concerns for the 13-kilometer elevated connector road that would use the alignment of the Philippine National Railways.

The plan would help decongest traffic at Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare, Edsa, and would slash travel  between the northern and southern expressways to 20 minutes compared to over an hour today.

President Aquino, in a roundtable with the Inquirer staff last week, said the completion of Metro Pacific’s connector road and an alternative north and south linkage being pursued by conglomerate San Miguel Corp. was possible within his term, which ends 2016.

Ramoncito Fernandez, president of Metro Pacific’s toll road arm, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., noted that the company was also waiting for the President to sign off on the project’s structure so that it can proceed with the connector road.

Based on the latest talks, Fernandez said the government had decided to use and extend the existing joint venture with PNCC instead of forming a new joint venture.

“It will be an extension of NLex. Based on our studies, if it’s used as an extension of Nlex, the toll rates can even go lower [ than originally proposed],” Fernandez said in a separate interview.

He said construction would take 18 to 24 months.

“We were prepared to do a Swiss Challenge but if government believes that this is the more legal, fairer and faster route, we will abide by the government’s direction,” Fernandez added.

“Right now, we are just waiting for the formal notification,” he said.

The connector road is the centerpiece of Metro Pacific’s P41-billion investment program over the next five years.

Metro Pacific Tollways is considered the country’s largest toll road operator, with about 64 percent of the country’s toll roads under its management, information on its website showed.

But most of its crown jewels are  located in the north.

The company operates the 84.96-km North Luzon Expressway and is waiting for the government to complete the turnover of the 93.7-km Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway.

In the south, it operates the 14-km Manila Cavite Expressway.

The connector road project would bridge the gap between Nlex and SLex, which is controlled by San Miguel and the Citra Group of Indonesia.