DPWH weighs CALAX Batangas extension

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is now evaluating Metro Pacific Investments Corporation’s R24-billion Cavite Batangas Tagaytay Expressway (CTBEX) unsolicited proposal, Secretary Mark A. Villar this week (November 23, 2017) announced.

DPWH is vetting whether the 46.2kilometer tollway project, an extension of CALAX (Cavite-Laguna Expressway), should be given original proponent status, he added.

The project proponents, MPCALA Holdings, Inc. and Metro Pacific Tollways South Corporation, submitted the unsolicited proposal this July 7.

The tollway, which will extend Metro Pacific’s reach in Southern Metro Manila, consists of a two-by-two lane carriageway traversing mostly the rural areas of Silang, Tagaytay, Amadeo, Mendez, Alfonso and Magallanes, all in Cavite province, and Nasugbu in Batangas.

It will link the 44.6-km CALAX at Silang East Interchange to Tagaytay City and will terminate at Nasugbu.

The CTBEX will likewise connect to Metro Pacific’s existing Cavite Expressway (Cavitex), a 14-km tollway linking Metro Manila to Kawit, Cavite.

Earlier, MPCALA Holdings, Inc. President and CEO Luigi L. Bautista disclosed, “If we get the original proponent status, that’s when we will do the detailed engineering design.”

Project construction is slated to start by the first quarter of 2019.

The proposal will not have any conflict with San Miguel Corp.’s R27billion proposal to build an alternative toll road that will link Tagaytay to Metro Manila via Cavite and Batangas.

Already, the Metro Pacific group has broken ground for the Laguna segment of the R35.43-billion CALAX, a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project that Metro Pacific clinched in 2015,

The CALAX starts in Kawit and will end in the South Luzon ExpresswayMamplasan interchange in Biñan, Laguna.

With worsening road congestion in the southern part of the metropolis, tollways such as the CTBEX are critical to solving traffic bottlenecks in the next half-decade, company executives maintained.

Needless to say, Metro Pacific also needs to strengthen its presence South of Metro Manila because its major toll roads, North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) are in the North of the metropolis.