SMC to complete TPLEX 3 years ahead of schedule

MANILA, Philippines - Private Infra Dev Corp. Inc. (PIDC), a unit of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), expects to complete the P24 billion Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) three years ahead of schedule.

SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said PIDC expects to fully complete the 88.85-kilometer toll road by 2015.

“In terms of construction, we are ahead of schedule. We are on track to delivering the entire length of TPLEX as early as 2015,” Ang said.

President Aquino is scheduled to formally open the TPLEX today via an inaugural drive-through.

Coinciding with the inaugural drive through is the opening of the expressway’s Paniqui exit.

This brings to 23 kilometers the total length of the TPLEX that is operational. In October, PIDC opened the project’s 17-kilometer Phase 1A from Tarlac City to Victoria, Pura, then Gerona, for free, to the public.

Currently, work is ongoing on the 27-kilometer stretch from Paniqui to Moncada in Tarlac, then Carmen in Pangasinan, including the construction of the 950-meter Agno viaduct that is slated for completion by December next year.

The two-hour travel time from Tarlac to Carmen will be cut to only thirty minutes.

“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 said.

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

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.

From end-to-end, the TPLEX will traverse 17 towns and two cities (Tarlac and Urdaneta City) across four provinces: Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union and Nueva Ecija. 

The TPLEX under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) program is being undertaken by the all-Filipino consortium including the Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc.

Originally designed as a two-lane road, SMC decided to upgrade the project to four lanes to ensure road safety and in anticipation of future traffic growth. It can be expanded up to eight lanes in the future.

Once complete, it will cut travel time from Tarlac to La Union to only one hour.

It is seen as a catalyst of growth, boosting tourism, trade, and agriculture in central and northern Luzon.

By the time it is complete, it would have also generated about 12,000 jobs.

The TPLEX boasts of many modern features found in world-class tollways.  These include a fleet of patrol cars and emergency assistance vehicles that can respond to motorists anywhere along the stretch within 10 minutes.

The TPLEX also comes with concrete barriers, guardrails, lighting and cameras in all toll plazas; signs, and pavement markings with powdered glass beads for enhanced visibility. Speed sensors are also deployed to ensure motorists keep to the 100-kilometers per hour limit.

Toll plazas in major entry points are also equipped with electronic card dispensing machines. All installations will be fiber optic and internet-enabled.