DPWH to rehabilitate MacArthur Highway

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Public Works and Highways Secretary Florante Soriquez vowed to immediately rehabilitate the MacArthur Highway in Bulacan and Pampanga to serve as a toll-free alternative to the 84-kilometer North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) which is set to increase its toll rates by more than 350 percent.

Soriquez said the widening and rehabilitation of the MacArthur Highway or the Manila North Road (MNR), which will cost some P1.9 billion, will help motorists who cannot afford to pay the toll increases on the NLEX.

The DPWH, he said, has prepared a feasibility study on the rehabilitation of the MNR from Meycauayan, Bulacan to San Manuel, Tarlac to cope with the growing vehicular traffic arising from heightened economic activities in Central Luzon.

Rehabilitation work on the MacArthur Highway is tentatively slated to begin this coming April and will run for about five to six months, DPWH regional director Ramon Aquino said.

The MNR improvement project is supported by Central Luzon congressmen led by neophyte Rep. Anna York Bondoc (fourth district, Pampanga). A number of them have pledged to help fund the project through their respective Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAFs).

Aquino said DPWH engineers are fast-tracking the demolition of some 15,000 commercial and residential structures illegally constructed along the highway to pave the way for the early completion of the MNR’s rehabilitation.

Business and civic leaders in Central Luzon, led by Romy Yusi Sr., regional governor of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., have also thrown their support behind the MNR improvement project.

Yusi said thousands of motorists in Central Luzon would greatly benefit if the MacArthur Highway could serve as an alternate route to the NLEX.