Duterte opens NLEX segment that cuts Valenzuela to Caloocan trip to just five minutes

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday inaugurated a new six-lane toll road that is expected to alleviate traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

Duterte opened the NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10, a 5.65-kilometer elevated expressway that traverses the cities of Valenzuela, Malabon, and Caloocan.

The expressway is seen to improve accessibility and connectivity between key areas of Metro Manila and some provinces of Luzon via the North Luzon Expressway and is expected to benefit around 20,000 motorists per day, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Travel time between Valenzuela City and Caloocan, for example, will be reduced from one hour to about five minutes.

"That’s heaven," Duterte said in a speech in Caloocan City.

The DPWH said the NLEx Harbor Link is seen to advance transport logistics as it will serve as an alternative southbound route to Metro Manila bypassing Balintawak Cloverleaf and EDSA.

It will also facilitate efficient delivery of goods as cargo trucks will have 24/7 direct access from the port area to the provinces in northern Luzon and vice versa via the NLEX.

"This will definitely improve access and mobility in the area and result in greater socio-economic gains for our industries and communities. I am hopeful that the remaining portions of the NLEX Harbor Link Project will be completed within the next two years," Duterte said.

Work on the 2.7-kilometer Segment 10 Exit Ramp to Radial Road (R-10) is currently ongoing to extend NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 up to R-10 using Circumferential Road 3 (C-3) as its route.

Segment 10 Exit Ramp to R-10 is targeted to be completed in January 2020. The DPWH said this will further reduce travel time from NLEX to Port Area in Manila to only 10 minutes.

The President also led the groundbreaking ceremony for the two-year construction of a tollroad connecting NLEX and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), two months ahead of its original start-up date in May.

"Identification of right-of-way requirement and most of acquisition activities were completed hence the earlier as planned start construction activities for the NLEX-SLEX connector road project," DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said in a statement.

The NLEX-SLEX connector road is eight kilometers, elevated, and with four lanes. The expressway extends the NLEX southward from the end of Segment 10 along C-3 Road Caloocan to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila and connects to the Skyway Stage 3, mostly along the Philippine National Railways track.

The project includes two interchanges on C-3 Road in Caloocan and on España Boulevard in Manila.

Once completed, the expressway will reduce travel time between NLEX and SLEX from two hours to just 20 minutes and between Clark, Pampanga and Calamba, Laguna from three hours to just one hour and 40 minutes.

It will also improve connectivity between the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Clark Airport and will benefit around 35,000 motorists a day.

The tollroads unit of conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. bagged the contract to build the P23.3-billion connector road.

"All of the projects that we undertake and will do for the rest of my term, [we] give our gratitude to the builders, to the contractors, the partners of government and we place it in the name of the people of the Republic of the Philippines," Duterte said.

"Nobody can claim credit in the name of the people, it is their money and for all of us," he added. —NB, GMA News