TPLEX Rosales-Urdaneta section open for Christmas season

MANILA, Philippines - The Rosales to Urdaneta, Pangasinan portion of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) will be open for motorists for the Christmas holidays and Pope Francis' visit.

The 13.66-kilometer section will be open from December 20 to Jan. 20, 2015 and will be free of charge.

Opening the new section would ease traffic flow to and from Luzon during the holidays and would accommodate travelers to who want to go to Manila for the visit of Pope Francis in January.

“Many families will be traveling to and from northern Luzon during the Holidays, and this is our company’s ‘Christmas present’ to them,” Private Infra Development Corp. president Mark Dumol said.

The section will be closed again after the said date to allow finishing works.

“Construction of TPLEX is well on track and while we still have to make a few more refinements, it is safe to use. We’re opening early as service to the public” Dumol added.

The TPLEX is expected to be fully operational by 2015. Travel from Tarlac City to La Union will only take 45 minutes at 100 kilometers per hour once the expressway is fully complete.

Travel from Tarlac to La Union is usually two and a half to three and a half hours using the old national road.