A unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said it is set to sign next month a deal with Leighton Holdings of Australia to build the Cavite side of the Cavite Laguna Expressway (Calax) Project.
“We just finished the negotiation, so were scheduling the contract signing with Leighton. We plan to do the contract signing in November,” MPCala Holdings Inc. president and chief executive Luigi Bautista said.
Bautista said the contract with Leighton to build the Cavite side amounted to about P7.3 billion.
“By January, they will start the construction for the Cavite side of Calax,” he added.
For the Laguna side of the project, MPCala tapped DM Consunji Inc., which started construction in April.
Calax involves the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of a four-lane, 45-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Cavitex and South Luzon Expressway.
The P35.4-billion expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEx-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.
Aside from the P35.4 billion construction cost, MPCala paid the government a premium bid upfront of P27.3 billion.
The Metro Pacific group is also constructing Segment 10 of NLEx Harbour Link, a 5.6-km elevated expressway costing P10.5 billion and running from Valenzuela City to C3 in Caloocan City. The project is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. earlier signed a joint venture agreement with the city of Cebu and the municipality of Cordova in April 2016 to build the P27.9-billion Cebu-Cordova Bridge project.
The 8.25-km bridge project, set to be completed by 2020, will connect Cebu City to Mactan Island via Cordova.
MPCala also submitted an unsolicited proposal to build a P22.43-billion expressway that will connect Cavite, Tagaytay and Batangas.
The Cavite-Tagaytay-Batangas Expressway is a 46-kilometer road will link Cavite Expressway and Cavite Laguna Expressway at Silang, Cavite to Tagaytay City and will terminate at Nasugbu, Batangas.