Ecija, Bulacan pool resources to start expressway
PALAYAN CITY, Philippines—The governors of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan have agreed to pool resources and jump-start the construction of an expressway from San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan to Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija.
“We can start the clearing and do the needed preparations of the proposed expressway so that it can get going soon,” Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali said here.
“This was the only project mentioned in [President Aquino’s] first state of the nation address. It will be built under a public-private partnership arrangement,” Umali said.
Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, chair of the Central Luzon Development Council, said the plan to start the construction has the full backing of the RDC.
He said the expressway will spur the agriculture-industrial development of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and portions of Aurora province.
“Governor Umali and I are really determined to see it started soon,” he said.
Heeding a recommendation by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the proposed expressway will be called the North Luzon East Expressway.
Stretching 92.1 kilometers, the expressway will start from the La Mesa Parkway (the junction of C-6 in San Jose Del Monte) and will pass through Norzagaray, Angat, San Ildefonso and San Miguel towns in Bulacan and Gapan City and Sta. Rosa town and then to Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija.
The expressway, which will cost up to P15.8 billion, will cross the Angat, Peñaranda and Pampanga rivers.
The DPWH said the proposed expressway will trigger “multiplier effects on commerce and industry along the growth node centers of Central Luzon and the eastern corridor of Luzon, Quezon and Aurora provinces.”
It will tie into a massive highway system began during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and continued by President Aquino.
This road network includes the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) through Bulacan, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx). Anselmo Roque, Inquirer Central Luzon
