Subic-Clark-Tarlac tollway to fully open April 28

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – Despite work slippage of about 2.30 percent on the P21.5-billion Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) announced yesterday that the country’s longest tollway stretching 93.77 kilometers will finally be open on April 28.

The SCTEx toll rate will be P2.20 per kilometer, the same rate along the North Luzon Expressway, SCTEx project engineer Darwin Chan told officials of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and local government officials belonging to the Metro Clark Advisory Council in a meeting here the other day.

But the tollway will be opened to motorists yet without interchanges to this Freeport and Floridablanca and Porac towns in Pampanga, as funding for them are still being negotiated.

These interchanges, however, are expected to be completed this year, Chan said.

Last Holy Week, President Arroyo opened the Clark-Subic segment of the SCTEx to ease holiday traffic.

The BCDA said the consortium of First Philippine Holdings Corp., Egis Road Operation, and Tollways Management Corp. was tapped to handle the operations and maintenance of SCTEx for at least six months under a renewable contract. – Ding Cervantes