Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) said over the weekend it is investing up to P10 billion to transition all its expressways to a barrier-free system.
“We want to move into the internationally accepted standards of tollway operations, barrier less and multi-road. Under this standard, you can go much faster than the overspending limit,” MPTC president and chief executive Rogelio Singson said.
“This one could range from P8 billion to P10 billion,” he said.
MPTC chief transformation officer Roberto Bontia said the project would be undertaken in “phases” where North Luzon Expressway, Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressway and NLEX Connector Road would be the first to complete the rollout by end-2025.
“CALAX and CAVITEX are foreseen to go-live by end 2026,” he said.
Bontia said studies confirmed that “barrier-free” set-ups at tolling points in expressways reduce carbon emissions by as much as 30 percent, contributing to environmental sustainability.
MPTC operates NLEX, SCTEX, Manila Cavite Expressway, C5 Link Expressway and Cavite Laguna Expressway.
Data showed that as of September 2023, the average daily traffic along NLEX reached 321,384 vehicle entries, while the average daily traffic along SCTEX totaled 77,878 vehicle entries.
The average daily traffic for the Connector Road Section 1 reached 12,000 vehicles per day; Cavitex, 158,000 vehicles; Calax, 34,000 vehicles; and Cavitex C5 Link, 14,000 vehicles.
Alvin Carullo, executive director of TRB, said the barrier-less program is designed to be implemented in phases to provide smooth transition of policies and technology as well as to avoid motorists’ birth pains.
“Phase 1 is scheduled to be implemented in November 2024. In this phase, only the toll barrier at the entry will be removed, and all the exit lanes will still maintain barriers,” Carullo said.
“The succeeding phases wherein all the exit barriers will be removed is initially scheduled in 2025 to 2026,” he said.