Manila North Road upgrade to take 2 years

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thus appealed Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane to motorists and commuters yesterday, saying the ongoing upgrading of some 80 kilometers of the old Manila North Road (MNR) from Marilao, Bulacan to Concepcion, Tarlac would take about two years.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has started bidding out six packages of the P500-million project slated to be finished this year.

Three of the packages are in Bulacan, two in Pampanga and one in Tarlac, DPWH regional director Ramon Aquino told Ebdane, who inspected various public works projects in Central Luzon yesterday.

"It is a long project wherein sections will be expanded (from two) to four lanes. But please don’t expect too much yet because the P500-million allocation for this year is only for road widening," Ebdane said.

Even after the roads are widened, Ebdane said traffic might still build up at the approaches to the existing two-lane bridges.

Aquino said low-lying sections of the MNR will not only be widened but also elevated.

Ebdane said about P1.2 billion to P1.5 billion would be needed to finish the entire MNR upgrading project, including about 13 bridges spanning it.

"We expect that the budget needed for the bridges would be incorporated in the next national budget so that the entire project could be finished in two years," he said.

Although the bridges’ upgrading are still expected to be finished next year, Aquino said a new P389-million bridge replacing the old one in Barangay Sulipan in Apalit, Pampanga is now being constructed by the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corp.

Informal settlers affected by the construction were given P15,000 each by the government as financial assistance for their relocation, Aquino said.

More motorists are now using the MNR after the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) increased the toll rates along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) when it took over its operations last February.

The MNTC spent some P18 billion to upgrade the NLEX.