March 17, 2008 [ journal.com.ph ]
By: Efren Montano
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will gift motorists for the entire Holy Week a toll-free ride at the 93.77-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) which will have its “soft opening.”
Clark-Subic Development Council head Edgardo Pamintuan said the new expressway will link the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga with Subic’s seaport in Zambales, pointing out travel time from Clark to Subic will be cut by up to 80 percent.
In the Clark portion of the SCTEX, the roads are already passable wherein the overpass is nearing completion, Pamintuan said.
Retired Gen. Narciso Abaya, president of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, said the SCTEX starts at the Tipo junction in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and ends in Tarlac.
It was conceptualized by President Arroyo as early as 2001 to enhance the seaport-airport synergy.
Abaya said the contract to build the expressway was approved in April 2005 and construction started last April 21, 2005. It was funded by a concessional loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It will be officially opened by the third or fourth week of April.
The official toll for the expressway is being negotiated by the BCDA with the Toll Regulatory Board and it is hoped that it will be about P2.20 per kilometer similar to the North Luzon Expressway.
Traversing Clark to Subic will now take only 35 minutes, benefiting not only tourists but regular commuters as well.
The SCTEX will be closed after March 24, to enable the contractor to make corrections and rectification works to ensure quality and safety and to complete an overpass in Concepcion, Tarlac, which is being built to give alternate route to carabaos and tricyles of farmers in the area.
Apart from completing the SCTEX, Pamintuan bared that it is also President Arroyo’s dream to link the NLEX southwards with the SLEX via Commonwealth Avenue and Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City and extend the NLEX northwards to Rosario, La Union, via the towns of La Paz and Gerona in Tarlac.
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