Bulacan starts construction of P680-million bypass road

MALOLOS CITY — More commercial and industrial estates are expected to sprout soon in Bulacan as the construction of the multi-million peso Balagtas-Plaridel-Baliuag bypass road commenced last week, a high official said.

Mayor Ambrosio Cruz of Guiguinto, the current president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Bulacan chapter made the disclosure last Sunday during the weekly broadcast of his "Balitang B" radio program over dwIZ.

"This will open a new frontier for development in the province of Bulacan," he said, referring to the 26-kilometer road project which was conceived in the mid-'90s but was shelved until a number of temporary exits from the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) were closed early last year.

Cruz said that the P680-million road project will traverse the towns of Balagtas, Guiguinto, Plaridel, Bustos, Baliuag and San Rafael.

According to Cruz, the project would not only ease traffic congestion along the Cagayan Valley Road from the Sta. Rita exit of the NLEX to Plaridel and Pulilan towns but will also open further economic and industrial development in the eastern side of Bulacan.

"We expect more investments to pour within the immediate vicinity of the bypass road," he said. — Dino Balabo