The tollway unit of San Miguel Corp. will start the construction of the P13.1-billion Southern Luzon Expressway-Toll Road 4 that will extend the highway from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Lucena City in Quezon province this year, the Public Works Department said over the weekend.
“We are targeting to start the construction of an expressway from Star Toll to Lucena in Quezon by third quarter of the year,” Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said.
Villar said the agency already acquired more than 5 kilometers of right of way for the project.
The four-lane, 58-kilometer expressway project is expected to make travel from Southern Tagalog provinces such as Batangas, Laguna and Quezon to Bicol Region faster and safer.
The project is divided into five sections. Section 1 covers Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Macban, Laguna (10.58 km); Macban, Laguna to San Pablo, Laguna (12.2 km); San Pablo, Laguna to Tiaong, Quezon (8.1-km); Tiaong to Candelaria, Quezon (14.4 km); and Candelaria to Lucena City, Quezon (12.31-km).
The project is expected to cut travel time between Sto. Tomas and Lucena to just one hour from the usual four hours. South Luzon Tollways Corp., a unit of San Miguel, is the proponent of the project.
SLEX-TR4 is the latest project in San Miguel’s infrastructure portfolio, which already includes the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, the Skyway Stage 3 project, the Naia Expressway project, the existing South Luzon Expressway and the recently upgraded and expanded Southern Tagalog Arterial Road or Star Tollway.
San Miguel also submitted an unsolicited proposal to the DPWH to extend TPLEx to San Juan, La Union from Rosario town for P23.95 billion.
The project involves a 59.4-kilometer four-lane toll road starting from the exit of TPLEx in Rosario to San Juan. The Rosario section of the expressway is expected to be completed this year, while its Pozorrubio section opened in December 2017.
The extension project would be divided into three segments, with the first segment spanning 18 km from Rosario to Tubao. The second segment will stretch 23 km from Tubao to Naguilian and the last segment will run 18.4 km from Naguilian to San Juan.
San Miguel said the project aimed to promote the development of Northern Luzon and facilitate connectivity to Central Luzon and Metro Manila through high-speed and secure access.
San Miguel earlier said it was looking to invest about P168 billion to construct modern tollroads and highways that are at par with those of neighboring Asian countries.