SLEX rehab project completed this year

MANILA, Philippines – The P8.5-billion rehabilitation and upgrading project of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) will be completed this year, a Palace official said Friday.

“Satisfied with the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) which has tremendously spurred growth and development up North, the President is pushing for the SLEX’s completion on or before year-end to boost economic activity in Southern Luzon,” Presidential Management Staff chief Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said.

Esperon also heads the Pro-Performance Team composed of leaders from the government, private and business sectors and civil society groups.

He said the SLEX project, divided into three project packages – Toll Road 1 (Alabang Viaduct), Toll Road 2 (Santa Rosa-Calamba) and Toll Road 3 (Calamba-Sto. Tomas) – is nearing completion with 77 percent accomplishment rate.

The Alabang Viaduct was opened to the public late last year, while Toll Road 2 will be completed this month. Toll Road 3 is 40 percent accomplished, he added.

Esperon was joined at the recent inspection of SLEX by other members of the team including Donald Dee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Marita Jimenez of the Asian Development Bank, Caritas Manila executive director Fr. Anton Pascual, Manila Broadcasting Company president Ruperto Nicdao Jr. and National Youth Commission chairman Richard Nalupta.

South Luzon Tollway Corporation (SLTC) president Isaac David assured them the SLEX “will be working triple time to finish the remaining sections of SLEX.”

Until its construction and rehabilitation in 2006, SLEX has the highest, non-stop vehicular traffic of any expressway in the country.
Over 250,000 vehicles pass through it every day, with an average 15 percent increase on holidays, and where 18 percent to 20 percent are commuter buses, cargo and container trucks moving industrial goods and agricultural produce, and more than 60 percent of landed and export products is transported to and from Luzon.

The former 29-kilometer, 4-lane expressway, which starts at the approach to the Alabang Viaduct in Muntinlupa City to Barangay Turbina in Calamba, Laguna, has been widened to eight lanes from Alabang Viaduct to Sta. Rosa, and to six lanes from Sta. Rosa to Barangay Turbina.

It is also being extended by another eight kilometers from Barangay Turbina to Sto. Tomas in Batangas to link the SLEX to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR).

Once completed, the SLEX-STAR linkage will provide access to the Batangas Port and offer a seamless nautical and land highway that will save time and transport cost for both passengers and freight, he said.

Esperon said it will relieve traffic on the old highway and significantly reduce travel from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Alabang Viaduct from over an hour to 30 minutes or less. 

“The extension of the SLEX is a major infrastructure project. It will not only ease and speed up travel to and from Batangas and Laguna but also connect the CALABARZON (Calamba-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) to the Luzon Urban Beltway and North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle,” he said. – Paolo S. Romero

 “With this project, new centers of business and commerce in the South are expected to open, which would help decongest Metro Manila,” Esperon said, adding “this would provide our exporters faster and safer access to the Free Port Zone in Subic and the airport in Clark and the NAIA.”

Esperon said Mrs. Arroyo wants the priority infrastructure projects, or those identified in her State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs), including the SLEX rehabilitation and upgrading project, to be completed this year.

He said the Pro-Performance Team has embarked on a more intensified project monitoring, including inspections and stakeholder meetings, to ensure the completion of the President’s 72 ongoing priority infrastructure projects and five national programs, or those identified in her SONAs.

Last week, the Pro-Performance Team inspected two multi-billion flood control projects – the Agno River Flood Control Project Phase II and the KAMANAVA (Kalookan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela) Flood Control Project. Both projects are nearing completion with 90 percent accomplished.

Esperon said he is so far satisfied with the status of the inspected projects.

“We shall be inspecting more projects on the ground to address project bottlenecks, resolve undue delays and ensure project completion this year,” he said. “We shall be true and committed to the President’s mandate - to be merciless in ripping through undue obstacles in the way of overdue infrastructure projects,” he said. - Paolo S. Romero