NDC to take over SLEX rehabilitation project

The National Development Co. (NDC) will take over the remaining construction/extension of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) following the inability of the Philippine National Construction Co. (PNCC) to complete the project, Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II said yesterday.

The NDC, an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), plans to borrow another P4 billion to finance the construction/extension of the SLEX, including the construction of the long-planned Alabang viaduct.

The NDC would actually borrow a total of P8 billion to finance the SLEX construction as well as a P4-billion schoolbuilding project.

Roxas said the NDC would take over the SLEX construction project which involves replacing or rehabilitating/reinforcing the Alabang viaduct and connecting the SLEX to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR).

The PNCC project is supposed to extend the SLEX up to Batangas City. It was even supposed to enter into a joint venture with Hopewell Crown Infrastructure Inc. to undertake the project.

The construction project may involve either replacing or rehabilitating/reinforcing the 1.125-kilometer Alabang viaduct which started showing cracks last year, forcing trucks weighing 20 tons and above to use the ground level access road which passes through the busy Alabang, Muntinlupa intersection.

Roxas said that since the SLEX currently ends in Calamba, the portion connecting it to the STAR expressway in Sto. Tomas also has to be completed.