- Road-widening works on the North Luzon Expressway will start next month
- The road-widening project is aimed to address the rising volume of vehicles using the expressway
- No lane closures will be implemented during the road-widening period to ensure smooth flow of traffic
The Manila North Tollway Corporation (MNTC) will start road-widening project this month on parts of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in anticipation of the expected traffic buildup in 2018.
In a statement, MNTC said it will spend P2.6 billion to address the increasing volume of vehicles using the 93-kilometer tollway that connects Metro Manila to Central and North Luzon.
In order to maintain the high quality service the MNTC provide motorists, additional lanes on certain portions of the expressway are needed to be built, says MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco.
The existing two-lane portions of NLEX between Sta. Rita and San Fernando will be widened to three lanes on both northbound and southbound lanes, while the one-lane stretch from Dau to Sta. Ines will be made into two lanes on both sides.
In Daphne Magturo’s article for the Business World Online dated February 14, 2016, Magturo wrote that according to Franco, the mentioned segments of the NLEX were picked for widening because it is there “where queues of vehicles usually form especially during the holidays when many motorists from Metro Manila leave the metropolis for destinations in Central and Northern Luzon.”
“These are where queues of vehicles usually form especially during holidays when many motorists from Metro Manila leave the metropolis for destinations in Central and Northern Luzon,” he said.
The MNTC data showed that from almost 200,000 vehicles using the NLEX in 2014, the number increased to 218,000 last year.
The MNTC management assured motorists that no lanes shall be closed during the road-widening work to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.
The company borrowed P5 billion each from the Phiolippine National Bank and Union Bank of the Philippines to fund its road-widening project and to refinance its debt.
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