NLEx opens new booths at Bocaue toll plaza

BOCAUE, BULACAN—Motorists heading to and leaving Metro Manila for northern Luzon on Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, won’t be bothered by long queues anymore.

The North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) opened on Tuesday eight more toll booths and lanes to accommodate the 245,000 motorists who are expected to travel north of Metro Manila.

The new booths are components of the Bocaue toll plaza expansion project, said Rod Franco, president of Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), which operates the expressway.

He said the new booths would help make travel easier, smoother and faster on Nov. 1, and during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

According to MNTC, an average of 218,000 vehicles take NLEx each day. The volume surges to 245,000, occasionally to 250,000, during long weekends and holidays, it said.

Glen Campos, MNTC assistant vice president for technical operations management, said all road works along the expressway would be suspended from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 to allow free flow of traffic before and after the All Saints’ Day weekend.

MNTC and its operating arm, Tollways Management Corp., is relaunching the “Safe Trip Mo, Sagot Ko 2016,” that would add tollbooth employees and deploy more personnel to ensure motorists follow the 100 kilometer per hour speed limit on NLEx.—CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE