The Public Works Department said travel time to Baguio City was reduced by 30 minutes with the opening of the Sison-Rosario segment of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway project during the holidays.
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said the 4-kilometer segment cut the travel time to Baguio by up to 30 minutes and eased the traffic bottleneck along Manila North Road towards Kennon Road.
“We opened the segment to provide ease to our tourists who want to experience the beauty of the City of Pines. While significantly cutting their travel time, we also want to ensure that the expressway is in its utmost quality for their safety,” Villar said.
Motorists who traversed the Sison-Rosario segment of the expressway were given free access during the holidays.
San Miguel-led Private Infra Dev Corp. holds the concession for TPLEX, an 88.85-km, four-lane, high-speed toll road that connects Northern Luzon to Manila. It is designed to integrate with other major toll roads such as North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
The construction of TPLEX began in 2010 in three phases. The first was completed in April 2014, running from Tarlac City to Carmen, Pangasinan.
The second stretch from Carmen to Urdaneta was completed in December 2014. The third section is from Urdaneta to Rosario, La Union.
DPWH earlier granted an original proponent status to San Miguel Holdings Inc. after it offered to build the P23.95-billion TPLEX extension to San Juan.
San Miguel’s unsolicited project involves a 59.4-kilometer four-lane toll road 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 a high-speed and secured access.