NLEX Corp. said Tuesday it invested P2.5 billion for new expressway lanes at the North Luzon Expressway to ease traffic congestion and accelerate economic development in Central Luzon.
NLEX said it built new expressway lanes from Sta. Rita, Guiguinto, Bulacan to San Fernando City, Pampanga, which was opened in March this year to help improve travel convenience and promote growth of local businesses.
The new projects also involve the upgrading of the five-kilometer Candaba Viaduct by adding third lanes and building new emergency stopping areas on both directions.
It said new 2×2, eight expressway lane kilometers in Mabalacat, including two new bridges in barangays Balem and Quitanguil, were opened in December 2016 to segregate northbound and southbound motorists along separate carriageways and improve road safety.
“The new expressway projects support the government’s efforts to decongest Metro Manila by boosting Central Luzon with infrastructure that enable more efficient and faster transport of good and services,” NLEX president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said.
The company’s new projects will improve public service for motorists commuting between Clark International Airport and the future Clark Green City, the 9,459-hectare master planned metropolis in Tarlac province.
“Road improvements leading to Clark complement our goal of making the city more accessible and attractive to tourists and investors alike,” Franco said, adding that “these will help strengthen Central Luzon’s position as the country’s newest growth hub.”
Aside from the new expressway lanes, the tollway operator opened this year additional toll lanes in Balintawak, Mindanao and Meycauayan toll plazas to improve the tollway system throughput for motorists traveling between Metro Manila and the provinces in Central and Northern Luzon.
Additional traffic decongestion exits going to the cities of Meycauayan and Valenzuela were also opened to the motoring public.
NLEX earlier reported a net profit of P2.3 billion in January to June, up from last year’s P2 billion.
Toll revenues amounted to P5.7 billion, or 8 percent higher than P5.2 billion a year ago, because of the increase in traffic from both NLEX and SCTEX operations.
The average daily traffic along NLEX in the first half reached 233,652 daily entries, up 7 percent from a year earlier, while average daily traffic along SCTEX went up 24 percent to 54,991 daily entries.