CONSTRUCTION of the P2.01-billion Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway (Slex) Link is now halfway done, according to an update from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.
The PPP Center’s web site showed that the facility is now 52-percent complete. The new thoroughfare is expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year.
Earlier, AC Infrastructure Holdings Inc., the infrastructure arm of the Ayala Corp., announced that the thoroughfare will begin commercial operations in June this year, but was pushed back to the third quarter of the year due to the late signing of the contract involving issues on the link between Daang Hari Road and Slex.
But the recent signing of an agreement with South Luzon Tollways Corp. (SLTC) paved the way for the concession to “go full blast” in the construction of the interchange.
The Daang Hari-Slex project was the first PPP project auctioned off and awarded under the flagship infrastructure program of the Aquino administration. The project starts from the junction of Daang Reyna and Daang Hari in Las Piñas/Bacoor in Cavite to Slex through the Susana Heights Interchange in Muntinlupa City, traversing the New Bilibid Prison Reservation.
Under the initial design, the proposed link road will use the Susana Heights Interchange as exit and entry from north and south of Slex and will include the construction of a new bridge/widening of the existing bridge crossing Slex, as well as the expansion of the Susana Heights toll plaza.
Ayala bagged the 30-year concession contract in 2011. The project is being implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways under a build-transfer-operate scheme.