Cagayan travel woes to end by March, says tollway exec

PLARIDEL, Bulacan—The travel woes being suffered by northern and Central Luzon motorists driving toward Cagayan Valley should end in March when the North Luzon Expressway’s (NLEx) Plaridel bypass road project is completed.

Rodrigo Franco, president and chief executive officer of the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), made the announcement on Thursday, saying the completion of the 6.8-kilometer road would be their first major accomplishment for 2012.

Motorists from Nueva Ecija and Cagayan Valley use the relatively narrow Cagayan Valley Road to exit through Bulacan.

The bypass road starts from the Burol-Balagtas interchange, stretches through the towns of Plaridel and Bustos and ends at the Cagayan Valley Road.

Franco said the bypass road is Phase 1 of a three-contract package for the construction of a 26-km road that provides communities access to NLEx from Balagtas to San Rafael towns. The project began on Jan. 30, 2009.

The bypass road, as well as the project’s Phase 2 (covering Plaridel-Bustos-Angat section), is funded by a P1.7-billion loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said Nelson Graza, the project engineer deployed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to oversee the project. He said Phase 2 would be completed in February 2013.

Marlene Ochoa, MNTC vice president for corporate communications, said the bypass road would reduce travel time by 20 minutes.

The DPWH has come under fire for delays in road projects that many motorists blame for their miseries on the road.

In many cases, good roads are being torn for no apparent reason other than for public works officials and contractors to make money out of new projects, according to critics of the DPWH. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon