The Department of Public Works and Highways on Friday inaugurated the construction of a new NLEx Interchange near the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan in a bid to decongest traffic in the province.
“The new NLEx Interchange is regarded as one of the government’s traffic decongestion projects aimed at improving the Bulacan road network particularly Bocaue, Sta. Maria, Pandi, Norzagaray, San Jose Del Monte, and Marilao as well as boosting the economic activities in nearby communities,” DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said.
The project costing P635 million will build a four-lane road connecting the Manila North Road and the Sta. Maria-Bocaue By-pass road, avoiding the heavily congested Governor F. Halili road via the Ciudad de Victoria.
It will also serve as an infrastructure support and catalyst to further boost economic activities and industrialization in the road influence area, specifically to the towns of Sta. Maria and Bocaue, Bulacan.
The first phase of the project consists of the construction of two additional lanes in the existing Bocaue Municipal Road, a new 80-linear meter 2×2 lane bridge crossing the NLEX and the rehabilitation of the inner road of Philippine Area for a total length of 1.93-kms. The road segment will begin near the Bocaue Municipal Hall and reach Sta. Maria, Bulacan bypassing the heavily congested Governor F. Halili Avenue in Bocaue.
Forming the second phase is the improvement of a 1.91-km road from Manila North Road or MacArthur Highway to Bocaue Municipal Road and the completion of the southbound acceleration and deceleration lanes for vehicles headed to the Philippine Arena. The last phase covers the construction of a 1.3-km road from the Philippine Arena to the existing PatubigRoad in Marilao, Bulacan.
The DPWH will also build a new NLEX west service road to serve local traffic between Bocaue and Marilao.
“With the completion of the first phase of project targeted in October this year, the new NLEx interchange is expected to further improve the accessibility of the Philippine Arena, which was tapped to host the grand opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in November,” said Maligaya Development Corp. chief operating officer Glicerio Santos IV.
The Philippine Arena is touted as the world’s largest indoor arena with a maximum seating capacity of 55,000.