Due to right-of-way (ROW) problems, the completion of the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange of the P35.7 Billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) was pushed back to the first quarter of 2023, operator MPCALA Holdings Inc. (MHI) announced Monday, November 21, after an inspection tour.
“The target date of opening of the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange has been moved several times, with the latest target completion, being December of 2022 again uncertain,” according to MHI President Raul Ignacio.
The ROW issues hampered MHI’s continuous works, including construction of drainage and bridge, excavation and roadway earthworks, and installation of fence and coco net.
The Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange is the fifth of the eighth segments of the 45-km CALAX.
Todate, this subsection of the CALAX, a 3.9-kilometer (km), 2×2 lane expressway from Silang East Interchange to Aguinaldo Highway in Cavite, is 64 percent complete.
Nevertheless, MHI is optmistic that work on the subsection can resume immediately “in time for the Christmas rush to Tagaytay”, says Ignacio.
Right now, an average of 33,000 vehicles per day pass from Mamplasan to Silang Ease interchange but this will increase to 40,000 daily as soon as the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange opens.
“It will ease traffic congestion in the 41-km Aguinaldo Highway—the busiest main thoroughfare in Cavite,” Ignacio noted.
The economic zones of Cavite and Laguna will “gain a lot from this upcoming project since travel time will be reduced”, providing an alternative way out of CALAX for Metro Manila motorists going to Tagaytay City, the MHI executive explained.
Notably, the entire Calax project should have been completed last July 2020 but it was technically delayed by two and a half years, its ROW acquisition delayed by five years, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) chief finance officer Christopher Lizo acknowledged.
Despite these, MPTC, MHI’s parent fitm, expects to complete the entire CALAX by December, 2023.
To date, CALAX’s operational segment covers 14.24-kilometers, with interchanges at Greenfield-Mamplasan, Laguna Technopark, Laguna Boulevard, Santa Rosa-Tagaytay, and Silang East.
Other CALAX interchanges – Open Canal, Governor’s Drive, and Kawit, will be finished next year.
Once complete, the CALAX, a public-private partnership (PPP) project of the DPWH and MHI, be linked to the Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX) in Kawit, Cavite.
MPTC also has concession rights for North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), NLEX Connector Road, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), and Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) in Cebu.
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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Emmie V. Abadilla.
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