NLEX Corp. expects to complete the entire expressway connecting the south and north of Manila by the second quarter of 2023, a top executive said over the weekend.
“We are rushing the completion of NLEX Connector Road Section 2, hopefully by second quarter of next year,” NLEX president and general manager J. Luigi Bautista said.
The Department of Public Works and Highways turned over 85 percent of the right-of-way requirements for the Sta. Mesa section.
The three-kilometer Section 2, a part of the eight-kilometer NLEX Connector that extends the North Luzon Expressway southward, will traverse España Blvd., R. Magsaysay Blvd. and connect to the Skyway Stage 3 near the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa.
The Sta. Mesa section will involve building 72 piers to support the elevated, four-lane expressway above the Philippine National Railways line. It will co-exist with the Department of Transportation’s North-South Railway project and will have two interchanges at España Blvd. and R. Magsaysay Blvd.
The first five-kilometer section of NLEX Connector between Caloocan Interchange on C3 Road and the future España Interchange in Manila is now 80-percent complete and is expected to make a positive impact on the traffic conditions in the metro.
The segment has on and off ramps and toll plazas along C3 Road and España Boulevard, crosses over the Blumentritt Station of LRT 1 and Dimasalang Bridge and uses steel box girders for curved and highly elevated areas.
Once completed, the four-lane Connector Road would serve around 35,000 motorists per day. It would would run mostly above the alignment of the Philippine National Railways and cross Tondo, Sta. Cruz, Sampaloc and Sta. Mesa.
