President Rodrigo Roa Duterte formally opened a new 6-lane toll road that will benefit around 20,000 motorists daily going in and out of Manila and North Luzon Expressway (NLEX).
With the President at the inauguration ceremony of NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 held Thursday, February 28, 2019 in Karuhatan, Valenzuela City are DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar and officials of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, a company owned by Metro Pacific Investments Corporation which holds the concession rights to construct, operate and maintain the North Luzon Expressway.
The project involves the construction of a 5.65-km elevated expressway traversing NLEX from MacArthur Highway Karuhatan, Valenzuela City, passing through Malabon City and C-3 Road, Caloocan City.
“As promised, we are opening NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 to reduce travel time from NLEX Valenzuela City to C-3 Caloocan City from more than one (1) hour to just five (5) minutes,” said Secretary Villar.
Secretary Villar said that the completion of Segment 10 will significantly benefit cargo trucks to and from the port of Manila and NLEX as it can serve as a 24/7 direct access road that bypasses the busy Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) or Balintawak Toll Plaza.
Meanwhile, work on the 2.7-kilometer Segment 10 Exit Ramp to Radial Road 10 (R-10) is currently underway to extend NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 up to R-10 using Circumferential Road 3 (C-3) as its route.
Segment 10 Exit Ramp to R-10 is aimed for completion by January 2020 and will further reduce travel time from NLEX to Port Area and vice versa to only 10 minutes.
NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 is part of the 21.65-kilometer NLEX Harbor Link Project envisioned to extend NLEX from Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City all the way to C-3 in Caloocan City and to Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.
Its segments 8.1 and 9 covering the 2.7-kilometer section from NLEX Valenzuela City junction to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City and the 2.42-kilometer section from NLEX Mindanao Avenue Link at the SMART Connect Interchange to McArthur Highway in Valenzuela City were completed in June 2010 and March 2015 respectively.
The final section to complete NLEX Harbor Link dubbed as Segment 8.2 is also expected to begin construction from the second quarter of 2020 until the second quarter of 2022.