MVP, RSA explore elevated toll road projects

Manuel V. Pangilinan and Ramon S. Ang

An elevated expressway in Katipunan and Edsa are up for discussion as tycoons Ramon S. Ang and Manuel V. Pangilinan move to combine their toll road assets, creating one of the country’s largest infrastructure companies.

Through the newly formed toll road conglomerate, which is projected to earn P50 billion annually, the two groups will jointly explore expansion opportunities, with an initial focus on addressing Metro Manila’s traffic-choked roads, Pangilinan told reporters last week.

“We were talking about how bad Katipunan and C-5 are and I said maybe we should have an elevated portion of that,” Pangilinan, whose group owns Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), said of his talks with Ang of San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

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Pangilinan said Ang also suggested an elevated expressway along Edsa—a project that was first proposed in 2019 by SMC, the operator of the Metro Manila Skyway system.

Original proposal

SMC’s original proposal called for the construction of a 10-lane elevated steel expressway that would rise on top of the 24-kilometer Edsa, a highway that connects Caloocan, Quezon City, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati and Pasay.

The proposal was meant to address worsening congestion in Edsa, but mobility advocates have pointed to studies suggesting that building more roads results in higher car usage. They argued that government should instead dedicate efforts toward providing more efficient mass transit systems.

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Portions of Edsa are served by the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 elevated train and the Edsa bus carousel. Katipunan Avenue and C-5, important thoroughfares linking large universities, commercial centers and residences in Metro Manila, have limited mass transport options.

Rogelio Singson, president and CEO of MPTC, said they were open to jointly pursuing a potential Edsa expressway.

Traffic

“It was mentioned among a list of potential projects. We haven’t seen the numbers but of course we’re always interested,” Singson told the Inquirer.

Despite its benefits, Singson expressed wariness about the significant road traffic a major Edsa project would cause during the construction period.

(FILE PHOTO) The still toll-free North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Connector, that connects lanes from Caloocan City’s C3 to España, from España going to Port Area and from Port Area to España in Manila, looks ready in this photo taken December 2022 to welcome over 400,000 motorists that will be travelling to the provinces this Holy Week. Photo taken by Carmela Reyes-Estrope

Apart from expanding their toll roads, another priority for MPTC and SMC was the integration and interoperability of their electronic toll payment systems.

This means motorists can use a single electric wallet to pay toll fees across the entire network.

“We are focusing on interoperability and customer convenience,” Singson said. INQ