The Public Works Department said it plans to bid out two expressway projects north of Manila under the public-private partnership scheme before the end of 2015.
Ariel Angeles, head of Public Works Department’s PPP service, said the auction process for Central Luzon Link Expressway Phase 2 and the Plaridel Bypass Toll Road would be held later this year.
“We are still under restructuring. We are procuring a transaction advisor for CLEX,” Angeles said.
The P14.2-billion CLEX Phase 2 is a two-lane, 35.7-kilometer expressway in Nueva Ecija province that will extend CLEX Phase I, a 30.7-km road from Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway in Tarlac City to Cabanatuan City, which will be constructed by the government with funding from the Japanese government.
Phase 2 will connect Cabanatuan City to San Jose City, also in Nueva Ecija.
Angeles said for Plaridel Bypass project, the feasibility study was almost done.
“We will now present it to Secretary [Rogelio] Singson. Then we will submit to Neda [National Economic and Development Authority] for approval,” he said.
The Plaridel Bypass Toll Road is a 24.6-km arterial road that will link the North Luzon Expressway in Balagtas, Bulacan to Maharlika Highway in San Rafael, Bulacan.
Angeles said the government wanted to award the two projects before the end of Aquino’s administration in 2016.
Rodrigo Franco, president and chief executive of Manila North Tollways Corp., earlier said his company was interested in the two expressway projects.
“Since both are in the north, MNTC will be keen to participate in these projects. Both are natural expansion of NLEX and SCTEX [Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway]. That is why we are interested,” Franco said.
MPCALA Holdings Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., last month won the bidding for the Cavite Laguna Expressway with a premium offer of P27.3 billion, besting the P22.2-billion bid of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., a unit of San Miguel Corp. Metro Pacific also controls MNTC.
Other PPP projects awarded by the Public Works Department were the P15.5-billion NAIA Expressway and the P2.01-billion Daang Hari-SLEX Link.
The government is also bidding out the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project.
The project aims to provide a high-standard highway that will speed up traffic between the southern part of Metro Manila and Laguna, as well as a dike that would mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake.