Photo credit: Department of Public Works and Highways
The expressway project in Central Luzon at the connection of Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX)/Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) in Tarlac City, Tarlac is targetted by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to be operational up to San Juan, Aliaga, Nueva Ecija toward the first half of 2023.
In his report to DPWH Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan, Senior Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain said that the DPWH Unified Project Management Office - Roads Management Cluster 1 (DPWH-UPMO RMC1) is currently working on the completion of additional seven (7) kilometer segment from Guimba-Aliaga Road intersection to San Juan Interchange that will extend to 25 kilometers the already accessible 18-kilometer section of the Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEX).
The DPWH UPMO RMC 1 team with the contractors and consultants have worked hard to overcome challenges along the way, such as bad weather, right of way issues, difficulty in the transport of construction materials, and Covid-19 impact that caused some delays, added Senior Undersecretary Sadain.
Other than the four (4)-lane two (2)-way expressway with design speed of 100 kilometers per hour, DPWH is also undertaking the construction of three (3) interchanges namely Zaragoza, Aliaga and San Juan that will allow motorists from the secondary and provincial roads to access CLLEX.
When fully completed, this 30-kilometer CLLEX Project will facilitate fast, safe, comfortable and reliable means of transport in Central Luzon as it form an important east-west link for the expressway network of Region 3 to ensure a continuous seamless traffic flow for the motoring public from Metro Manila and vice versa passing thru NLEX, SCTEX/TPLEX.
This project is part of the government’s vision of easing traffic congestion and will shorten the usual travel time of 70 minutes between Tarlac City and Cabanatuan City to just 20 minutes.
The project is one of the key infrastructures with funding assistance from the Government of Japan thru Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is included in the Luzon Spine Expressway Network projects aimed at reducing travel time from the northernmost part of Luzon, Ilocos, to the southern most part, Bicol, by over 50 percent via the construction of high standard highway network.
In his inspection on December 19, 2022 together with Project Director Benjamin A. Bautista, Senior Undersecretary Sadain has instructed the DPWH UPMO RMC 1 project supervision team of Project Engineers Manuel R. Monfort, Juancho Hernandez, and Albert Manuel and the contractors to put more resources in the project and accelerate their work.
The DPWH-UPMO together with Nueva Ecjia First and Second District Engineering Offices are also continuously working on the processing of right of way claims.
Delayed reimbursement or payment of affected property is due to difficulty of right of way claimants to comply with all the documentary requirements or problems on submitted papers establishing proof of ownership and others, most common of which are cancellations of encumbrance/s on the land titles and payment of corresponding estate taxes for the registered deceased landowners and the change of creditor’s name.
