MNTC to start NLEX Harbor Link in January

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) is set to start in January the construction of the P1.6 billion segment that would connect the North Luzon Expressway to MacArthur Highway in Valenzuela City.

MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco said in an interview with reporters that the company has submitted an application with the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) for the construction of segment 9 that was supposed to start late this year.

“This project is a little bit delayed, but finally and hopefully, by January we will be able to start the construction of our Harbor Link and we have filed with the TRB a request for construction,” Franco stressed.

The first segment of the Harbor Link would reconnect NLEX to McArthur Highway in Valenzuela City. It covers a 2.1 kilometer expressway that would run from NLEX cloverleaf to MacArthur Highway near Valenzuela City.

He told reporters that majority of the right-of-way acquisition has already been completed.

“The right-of-way acquisition is almost done, but we are starting construction in January,” he clarified.

Construction, according to him, would take at least one year.

Franco explained that the company would also start the construction next year of the seven-kilometer way that would end from segment 9 to the circumferential road 3 (C3) in Caloocan City known as segment 10.

The project worth about P8 billion would be completed by 2015. The project involves the construction of an elevated highway over the existing rail right-of-way of the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

Franco earlier said MNTC is raising between P16 billion and P17 billion from the domestic debt market over the next four years to bankroll ongoing road projects connecting to NLEX.

MNTC also intends to connect NLEX to circumferential road - 5 (C5) worth P10 billion to dramatically decongest traffic along Commonwealth Ave. and Quezon Ave.

The NLEX C-5 Link and the Harbor Link projects comprise Phase 2 of MNTC’s Manila North Expressway concession. When completed, he said Phase 2 would provide an east-west expressway alignment traversing heavily-congested areas of northern Metro Manila and would dramatically reduce travel time within the expressway corridor.

MNTC has completed a 2.7 km expressway that links the NLEX main to Mindanao Ave. with the country’s largest cloverleaf interchange called Smart Connect Interchange as its main feature.

MNTC, a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), operates the 84-kilometer NLEX and was recently awarded by the state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) the right to operate and maintain the 94-kilometer Subic Clark Tarlac expressway for 33 years.

MPTC is spending P2.5 billion for its capital expenditure requirements next year.