June 4, 2010, 4:36pm [ manila bulletin online ]
The Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC), developer and concessionaire of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), opens Saturday Segment 8.1 or the NLEX Mindanao Avenue Link, a 2.7-kilometer expressway that provides motorists with additional entry and exit ramps to the NLEX – well ahead of the opening of the school year when traffic volume on the expressway traditionally surges.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, DPWH Secretary Victor Domingo and Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), parent company of MNTC – will lead the inaugural drive-through that will signal the start of commercial operations of the new segment.
The NLEX Mindanao Avenue Link connects the NLEX, at its Valenzuela City junction, to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City. Built at a total cost of P2.1 billion and expected to serve up to 30,000 vehicles daily during the initial year, the new segment kicks of NLEX’s multibillion-peso road network expansion program known as NLEX Phase 2.
“Once this expansion program is completed, motorists from any part of Metro Manila and neighboring areas can get to the NLEX without going through the heavy traffic in Balintawak, the main entrance to the expressway, and other choke points in the metropolis,” Rodrigo E. Franco, MNTC president and CEO, said. “This will dramatically speed up the transport of people and goods via the NLEX and thereby, help further spur the economic development of Central and Northern Luzon.”
Under NLEX Phase 2 are three other road projects: Segment 8.2 which will link Mindanao Avenue to Katipunan Avenue and to C5, Segment 9 which will connect McArthur Highway in Valenzuela to the NLEX, and Segment 10 which will link McArthur Highway to Manila’s Port Area. Segment 9 will ease access to McArthur Highway, the old route to Central and Northern Luzon. Segment 10, also called “The Port Connector,” will dramatically speed up the transport of goods to and from Manila’s North Harbor.
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