Construction on TPLEX ahead of schedule, may be completed by 2015

The P24-billion Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) may be finished by 2015, three years earlier than expected.

 

According to Ramon Ang, president and chief operating officer of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), construction by SMC unit Private Infra Dev Corp. Inc. (PIDC) is ahead of schedule.

"We are on track to delivering the entire length of TPLEX as early as 2015,” he said.

 

In October, PIDC opened the 17-km. Phase 1A off the toll road from Tarlac City to Victoria, Pura, then Gerona, to the public for free.

 

President Benigno Aquino III is expected to formally open TPLEX on Monday with an inaugural drive-through. The drive-through will also mark the opening of the TPLEX's Paniqui exit, which will bring the total operational length of the 88.85-km expressway to 23 kilometers. 

 

Construction is ongoing on a 27-kilometer stretch from Paniqui to Moncada in Tarlac and to Carmen in Pangasinan.

 

“Right now, we are waiting for the completion of the acquisition of the right-of-way for the 13.72-kilometer portion from the north bank of the Agno river up to Urdaneta. But our government is working on that. We are confident that we will complete this section up to Urdaneta as early as December 2014,” Ang added.

 

He said the remaining 25.83-kilometer section from Urdaneta to Rosario, La Union, will be completed in 2015, ahead of the original target of 2018.

 

The TPLEX, one of several infrastructure projects in SMC's portfolio and its first greenfield tollway project, is seen as a vital road project in Luzon, connecting the central and northern Luzon provinces to Manila and beyond through the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and the North Luzon Expressway.

 

The TPLEX will traverse 17 towns and the cities of Tarlac and Urdaneta across the provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union and Nueva Ecija. — JDS, GMA News