2 towns plan road to ease mall gridlock

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines—This city and neighboring Sta. Rosa town are planning a new road that would help ease travel through the area where shopping malls are located.

Cabanatuan Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara and Sta. Rosa Mayor Josefino Angeles signed a joint venture deal for the completion of a 4.7-kilometer road that will divert traffic from the bottleneck-plagued section of the Maharlika Highway in downtown Sta. Rosa and this city’s Sumacab Este village, which hosts two shopping malls.

Vergara said the road would help ease travel through the area which has been drawing huge investors. Retail giant SM is expected to open one of its biggest malls this year, joining Robinsons, Waltermart and S&R Membership Shopping.

The road project was endorsed in 1999 by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

City engineer Lauro Pangilinan said construction would take two months, and would start at the northern portion of the Minatula Bridge on Emilio Vergara Highway in Sumacab Este.

It would continue to Barangay Soledad at the edge of Fort Magsaysay Road in Sta. Rosa and push on to Barangay Luna near the border of San Leonardo town in Barangay Tabuating in the south.