Toll collected on TPLEX Tarlac stretch starting Jan. 6

ANGELES CITY , Philippines  â€“ Starting Jan. 6, toll will be imposed on the 23-kilometer portion of the still unfinished Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

 This was announced by San Miguel Corp. (SMC), through its subsidiary and toll road concessionaire Private Infra Development Corp. Inc. (PIDC), the financer and operator of the expressway that would stretch 88.85 kilometers when fully completed.

 The toll, according to PIDC, will cover the Tarlac City-Gerona-Paniqui stretch.

In a statement, the PIDC said toll rates in the Tarlac City-Victoria stretch covering 8.66 kilometers are P30 for Class 1, P76 for Class 2, and P91 for Class 3 vehicles.

On the other hand, the toll rates from Victoria to Gerona stretching 8.017 kilometers are P28 for Class 1, P70 for Class 2, and P84 for Class 3 vehicles.

 The toll rates between Tarlac City and Gerona town, 16.777 kilometers long, are P58 for Class 1, P145 for Class 2, and P175 for Class 3 vehicles, the PIDC said.

President Aquino formally opened the finished portion of TPLEX last Dec. 23 via an inaugural drive-through in the Paniqui exit in Tarlac.

So far, 23 kilometers of the total length of TPLEX are operational following the opening of the 17-kilometer Phase 1A from Tarlac City to Victoria, Pura, and Gerona.

 At present, the PIDC is collecting no toll from motorists using the TPLEX section.

 The PIDC said it is working on the 27-kilometer stretch from Paniqui to Moncada in Tarlac, then Carmen in Pangasinan, aside from the construction of the 950-meter Agno viaduct.

The PIDC is eyeing an April 2014 completion for this section, ahead of its December 2014 target.

Once these sections are finished, the two-hour travel time from Tarlac to Carmen will be cut to only 30 minutes.

 The PIDC also said the remaining 25.83-kilometer TPLEX stretch from Urdaneta, Pangasinan to Rosario, La Union will be completed by 2015.

From end-to-end, TPLEX will traverse 17 towns and two cities in the provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, and Nueva Ecija, according to the PIDC.

TPLEX “connects the northern and central provinces of Luzon to Metro Manila via the North Luzon and Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressways,” it added.

SMC decided to upgrade TPLEX from two lanes, as originally designed, to four lanes to ensure road safety and in anticipation of future traffic growth.

Once fully completed, TPLEX will cut travel time from Tarlac to La Union to only an hour from the present three and a half hours, PIDC said.