MANILA, Philippines—Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., one of the country’s biggest toll road operators, is moving forward with a P120 billion pipeline of projects amid the unfolding health crisis.
The projects are expected to help “jumpstart” the Philippine economy, which likely entered a recession this year.
“We have resumed full blast construction of our big ticket expressway projects in the country,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, chair of Metro Pacific Tollways, said in a statement.
Metro Pacific Tollways is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., an infrastructure giant whose assets span power, water services, roads and railways.
Rodrigo Franco, Metro Pacific Tollways CEO, said improving the country’s road networks will pave the way for “easier mobility of our people and supports the unhampered flow of goods and services.”
He said the group had regrouped its contractors as it ramps up work on priority construction areas this year.
The largest is the 44-km Cavite Laguna Expressway, which has a total project cost of P52.5 billion.
The first 10-km section between South Luzon Expressway Mamplasan interchange and Sta. Rosa City opened in 2019.
Another segment between Sta. Rosa City and Silang, Cavite will partially open this year.
In Metro Manila and Central Luzon, the company is implementing three projects along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) corridor, including the NLEx Connector, with a combined length of 19 kilometers.
These NLEx projects included the recently opened Harbor Link C3 to R10/Mel Lopez Boulevard in the CAMANAVA area, plus the ongoing 8 km elevated NLEx Connector Road that is being built over the Philippine National Railways’ line. This has a project cost of P19.59 billion.
NLEx Corp. is also building a new 8-km. carriageway at the Subic Freeport Expressway, including a new tunnel and two bridges, which will cost P2.36 billion. The expanded expressway will be opened to traffic before the end of 2020.
The group’s ongoing construction projects south of Metro Manila are being undertaken inside the Cavite Expressway (CAVITEx). These have a total project value of P15.2 billion, with a combined length of 6.75 km.
CAVITEx is also implementing road widening improvements, featuring three new bridges in Paranaque, Wawa, and Las Pinas.
In addition, two major sections of the C5 South Link Expressway, along the Paranaque-Las Pinas-Taguig City corridor, will start construction this year. These are Subsection 3A-2 between Merville and Sucat and the new Segment 2 expressway between the future Sucat Interchange and Paranaque toll plaza.
Also underway is the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEx), an 8.5-km bridge spanning the Mactan Channel to link Cebu City and Cordova in Mactan. The project is slated for completion in 2021.