BIZ BUZZ: Flooded NLEx, bad for economy
Thousands of motorists have been inconvenienced by the flooding of a short section of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) in recent days brought about the rains that have been falling intermittently for almost two weeks.
NLEx has remained passable to vehicles, but the flooding of around 18 inches deep has caused many motorists to slow down to a crawl while navigating the murky waters. This has resulted in heavy traffic on both north and southbound lanes of the toll highway.
Tuesday’s situation was especially bad as many motorists were stuck in traffic for hours while waiting to cross a flooded section of NLEx near San Simon, Pampanga. What really upset them was that only a 50-meter stretch of the road was flooded, but this was enough to paralyze the movement of people and goods between Manila and northern Luzon.
It’s bad for travelers, it’s bad for the local economy, and it’s bad for the company that operates NLEx because they have less revenues from slower vehicular throughput.
One motorist reported that a trip to Subic from Manila took almost five hours instead of the customary two … all because of a short stretch of flooded road that could have been remedied by having water pumped out of the basin-like area, or perhaps precautionary engineering works over the summer.Perhaps it’s high time Metro Pacific head honcho Manuel Pangilinan crack the whip for his subordinates to wake up. After all, they have to use the money from their recently approved toll hike somewhere, right?
