Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. is reviewing the completion date of its toll road projects amid the enhanced community quarantine imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
“Construction of our toll road projects has been suspended because of the ECQ order,” MPTC president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said.
The completion of NLEX Harbor Link C3-R10 Section—a new 2.6-kilometer elevated expressway from Caloocan Interchange, C3 Road, Caloocan City to Radial Road 10, Navotas City—which was originally expected by March was moved to June, on assumption that construction activities would resume by mid-May.
Prior to the ECQ, the NLEX Harbor Link C3-R10 Section was at 93-percent completion. With completion of the project, travel time from Port Area to NLEX will be reduced to 10 minutes, which would benefit the transport logistics industry as cargo trucks would be spared from the truck bans on congested local roads.
Construction of the company’s other toll road projects were also temporarily suspended amid the ECQ.
MPTC is constructing the P23.3-billion NLEX-SLEX Connector Road, an eight-km elevated four-lane expressway extending NLEX southward from the end of Segment 10 on C3 Road Caloocan City to PUP Sta. Mesa, Manila and connecting to Skyway Stage 3 by mostly traversing the PNR rail track.
The company expects to spend P107 billion to complete the current projects and an additional P25 billion if it secures the Cavite-Tagaytay-Batangas Expressway.
Average daily vehicle entries on four of its domestic tollways declined 6 percent in the first quarter to 479,860 from 508,051 a year earlier.
Domestic daily vehicle entries averaged 574,000 in the first two months of 2020, an increase of 14 percent over the same period last year but declined to 57,000 a day after the ECQ. This increased to 115,000in late April.
MPTC reported a core net income of P900 million in the first quarter, down 18 percent from P1.1 billion a year ago as a result of lower traffic on toll roads.