DPWH launches bidding for connector road

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) finally launched the bidding process for an 8-km elevated “connector road” that will link the North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway and ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, a bid invite showed yesterday.

The project, which was initially presented by a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. as an unsolicited proposal during the Arroyo administration, would be bid out via a Swiss challenge. This means other companies will be given the opportunity to submit comparative proposals for the P18-billion project. Metro Pacific has the right to match rival offers to win the tollroad deal, which has a 37-year concession period.

The DPWH invite showed that the instructions to comparative proponents, qualification and other tender documents would be available from April 12 to May 24, 2016. The submission date for comparative proposals was set on July 5, 2016, or after the term of President Aquino.

The DPWH earlier indicated that an award would happen by the third quarter of 2016. Estimates placed the start of construction at 2017 with completion seen by 2020.

About 35,000 vehicles a day are expected to use the connector tollroad, which begins at the C3 Road   in Caloocan City and end in PUP Sta. Mesa. It will have an opening toll fee of P87.

The project will be done through a single-stage qualification and bidding procedure. The bid evaluation will center on the “highest offered concession fee as an additional consideration for the right to use the right-of-way requirements of the connector project,” the DPWH invited showed.

The project was set back several years mainly due to disagreement among multiple government agencies on how the project should be structured.

The tollroad, which uses the alignment of the Philippine National Railways, will cut travel time from NLEx to SLEx to about 15 to 20 minutes. Right now, reaching either expressway through Metro Manila’s congested roads could take more than two hours.