Metro Pacific to get NLEX-SLEX Connector Road project

The Metro Pacific group is receiving the P23.2-billion connector road project from the Department of Public Works and Highways this week.

The public-private partnership project links the North and South Luzon Expressways.

"We're expecting it this week," Rodrigo E. Franco, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president and chief executive officer, told reporters on the sidelines of the Euromoney Philippines Investment Forum in Taguig City.

Last week, the Department of Finance said the project was good to go.

Official awarding the project was delayed as the DOF suggested the project be given to a special purpose company (SPC), but Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said it can be awarded to Metro Pacific.

Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp., a unit of MPTC, failed to bag the PPP project since it was not an SPC as suggested by the Finance Department under the administration of then-President Benigno Aquino III.

However, no other company took part in the Swiss Challenge on July 25.

"Creating an SPC, we think, is more expensive. Even borrowing costs will be higher," Franco said.

The construction is expected to begin in 2018.

"Were hoping late 2018 we can already start construction. Siguro mga middle to late 2018," Franco said, noting the project will take three years to complete.

The project brief from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center shows that the winning bidder will construct, operate, and maintain the 8-kilometer elevated connector road over the Philippine National Railway (PNR) right of way.

It starts from the C3 Road in Caloocan City through Manila, crossing over España Boulevard towards PUP in Sta. Mesa and connecting Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3.

"Once completed, the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road is expected to decongest traffic in Metro Manila by providing an alternative to the C-5 Road, Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), and other major thoroughfares, and cut the travel time between NLEX and SLEX to 15 to 20 minutes which today takes more than an hour," according to the project brief. — VDS, GMA News