MPIC connector road faces delays

Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s 8-kilometer elevated connector road, seen as a key piece of infrastructure to ease traffic in Metro Manila, is facing further delays and will not be awarded within this year.

The P16-billion project has been revised several times over due to disagreements among government agencies on how it should be implemented.

The tollroad, which also uses part of the alignment of the Philippine National Railways, was also redesigned due to the approval this year of the North South Commuter Railway from Tutuban to Malolos in Bulacan.

Ariel Angeles, who heads the PPP service of the Department of Public Works and Highways, said in an interview that the project was still up for approval by the National Economic and Development Authority, which is chaired by President Aquino.

Assuming the project would be given the greenlight this quarter, he said, it would still have to go through the required Swiss challenge process which takes about 90 days to finish. That would place its awarding in early 2016, he said.

The connector road, which starts at the C-3 in Caloocan City and ends in PUP Sta. Mesa, Manila, would cut road congestion in Metro Manila’s main thoroughfares, while adding a more direct link to the Manila port area.

The original plan was to have the project completed before President Aquino steps down in mid-2016.

The current timeline, however, places its full opening by 2019 to 2020, according to Rodrigo Franco, president of Manila North Tollways Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments and operator of the North Luzon Expressway.

Franco said in an interview that delays were partly due to the impact that regulations had on the tollroad’s design, cost, and commercial parameters.

“We just have to wait and go through the process,” Franco said. The P16-billion project cost, he added, excludes right of way expenses.