Starting the year right

This year started right as two of the country’s biggest conglomerates joined forces to give motorists a hassle-free ride from North to South Luzon, vice-versa, and to various places in Metro Manila.

We just learned that the MVP Group, through Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and NLEX Corp., has agreed to connect the recently opened Skyway Stage 3 of the San Miguel Corp. group, allowing motorists plying the 18-kilometer tollroad connecting the southern and northern Manila to directly access North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) operated by MPTC.

Skyway Stage 3 was initially designed to end in Balintawak, leaving at least a three-kilometer gap before entering the NLEX toll road. After reaching an agreement with the MVP Group, the newly opened SMC elevated expressway was extended by three kilometers to connect to NLEX.

According to sources, MPTC and NLEX provided Skyway 3 initially one dedicated lane but plans are to increase this to two or three lanes.

SMC president Ramon S. Ang extended his “sincere thanks to MVP for his friendship.” MVP stands for Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC), parent company of MPTC and NLEX.

The same sources told this writer that Skyway 3 which is now on soft opening with a few ingresses and egresses along its 18-kilometer stretch will be fully operational after Jan. 14, 2021, which happens to be RSA’s birthday. So far, only four lanes are open. But on the 14th, SMC will formally open all seven lanes of the entire 18-km stretch from Buendia, Makati to NLEX.

Since only three kilometers separates Skyway 3’s toll booth in Balintawak and that of NLEX in Bulacan, as part of the agreement with the MVP Group, SMC will be collecting the initial toll fee being levied by NLEX upon its users to make it convenient for motorists who do not have to stop at two toll booths very near each other, allowing for seamless travel.

Last Dec. 29, SMC partially opened Skyway 3 to motorists, providing a vital and much-sought-after link between southern and northern Luzon, free of charge for a month.

Those who have already tried it said it only takes 15 minutes to traverse the entire length of Skyway 3. But once use picks up, it is still expected that this new tollway will dramatically reduce travel time between Makati to NLEX to only 20 minutes, and Alabang to NLEX to only 30 minutes. It will serve as an alternative to EDSA for those travelling between Metro Manila cities, reducing traffic on the country’s busiest thoroughfare.

RSA earlier credited President Duterte’s entire economic team for pursuing massive infrastructure development under its Build Build Build program, and for helping accelerate the completion of Skyway 3.

He said that the project is the result of the hard work and contributions of so many stakeholders, past and present, even as he made special mention of the work put in by Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, Transportation Secretary Art Tugade and Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez who all pushed for infrastructure development to create growth and make life easier for more Filipinos.

RSA likewise thanked Secretary Villar for making it possible for the end point of Skyway 3 to be extended and connected directly to NLEX.

Together with Skyway 1, 2 and the Skyway extension which will have a total of 20 kilometers, Skyway 3 extends the entire Skyway system to 38 kilometers. And with the completion this year of the Skyway Extension project at the southern end from Susana Heights to Alabang, the entire Skyway will have 36 access points on both sides, from end to end.

Based on one account posted three days ago, parts of the new elevated tollway have actually opened. For northbound motorists, these are Buendia on-ramp, Quezon Avenue on-ramp, and Balintawak off-ramp. On-ramps are entry points while off-ramps are exit-points. For those who are southbound, those which are already open are Buendia off-ramp, Plaza Dilao on-ramp, Quezon Avenue off-ramp, and Balintawak on-ramp.

As described by DPWH, the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project has a length of about 18.83 kilometers, with 2x3 lanes from Buendia to Sgt. Rivera corner A. Bonifacio in Quezon City, 2x2 lanes from Sgt. Rivera corner A. Bonifacio to NLEX Balintawak also in Quezon City, and 2x3 lanes elevated roadway structure connection to the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project in the vicinity of PUP.

DPWH said the project will decongest EDSA and other major roads such as Quezon Avenue, Araneta Avenue, Nagtahan and Quirino Avenue, among others, by as much as 55,000 vehicles daily, and will reduce travel time from Buendia to Balintawak from two hours (which based on experience can be as long as four hours) to just 15 to 20 minutes.

Aside from Skyway Stage 3, SMC will soon complete the Skyway extension project, which would connect the Southern Luzon Expressway to the Skyway near Susana Heights and the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway.

The Skyway 3 project is one of the 23 big-ticket infrastructure projects that the DPWH eyed to help ease congestion along EDSA. The project’s construction started in 2014, but the completion date was postponed several times due to delays and right-of-way issues.

Secretary Villar has said that Skyway Stage 3 is a critical component of the EDSA decongestion project, a masterplan composed of 25 projects. It will eventually be connected to the NLEX Harbor Link, which opened in 2020, via the NLEX-SLEX Connector in 2021. The latter is an eight-kilometer four-land toll expressway traversing the NLEX southbound route from the end of Segment 10 along C3 Road in Caloocan to PUP in Sta. Mesa, Manila. It is expected to divert at least 35,000 motorists daily from EDSA and C5.

The NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project, which will connect to Skyway 3, traverses the PNR rail track and is a project of the MVP Group. According to DPWH, civil works for this project is targeted to be completed by December this year. It is expected to stimulate development in Manila, Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas and surrounding areas, decongest Metro Manila traffic, provide trucks with an alternative route and resolve truck-ban issues, provide better access to Manila ports and both NAIA and Clark airports, and complete the connection of NLEX and SLEX.

It will also reduce travel time from SLEX to NLEX from two hours to just 20 minutes, reduce travel time from Clark to Calamba from three hour to 1.4 hours, and improve connectivity between NAIA and Clark airports. Project concessionaire is NLEX Corp., which also operates NLEX and SCTEX.

Our dream of a decongested EDSA will soon be a reality, thanks to these two infrastructure giants which are now working together to make our world better. After all, it would not make sense to have all these tollroad and not interconnect them because it would only result in traffic buildup at their endpoints.

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