INFRASTRUCTURE conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) should start constructing the multibillion-peso road that will link the North and South Luzon expressways by 2018 should right-of-way be available as promised.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. President Rodrigo E. Franco said his company is set to bag the P22.95-billion Connector Road by the end of the month, after it received no contentions on the project’s competitive challenge. “We hope to get notice of the award before the end of the month, then we proceed with the detailed design until the end of the year. Right-of-way acquisition is for 30 months, but we expect the first section to be available in 2018, allowing construction to start by that time,” he said in a text message.
The connector road aims to link the two thoroughfares to the northern and southern corridors of Manila via the Philippine National Railways’s right-of-way.
Under the Metro Pacific proposal, the company plans to construct an 8-kilometer road network, which will run from C-3 Road in Caloocan to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila. It was originally submitted as an unsolicited proposal back in 2010, carrying a P22.95-billion ticket cost.
The expressway is expected to facilitate the seamless exchange of goods and services between the two ends of the country’s capital. This would aid truck operators and freight-service firms to pick up shipped goods from the ports in Manila and deliver them to markets.
There were seven parties interested in challenging the proposal of Metro Pacific. These were San Miguel Holdings Corp., Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, Hunan Road and Bridge Corp. and four law firms.