NLEX Corp. said it tapped D.M. Consunji Inc. to build the first section of the P23.3-billion NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project.
NLEX president and general manager Luigi Bautista said the company appointed DMCI as the contractor for the NLEX Connector Road Project Section 1.
NLEX Section 1 is a 5-kilometer road that runs from Caloocan connecting to C3 all the way to España Boulevard in Manila.
“Next week, we will sign the contract and then the first bored pile that will be executed will be second week of November. So between today and the second week of November, DMCI will start preparing for mobilization,” Bautista said.
The project will be completed in 20 months.
The P23.3-billion NLEX-SLEX Connector Road is an eight-kilometer 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 project includes two interchanges at C3 Road/5th Avenue in Caloocan and España in Manila.
Once completed by 2021, the project will reduce travel time from SLEX to NLEX from two hours to just 20 minutes. Some 35,000 motorists are expected to use the project.
It will also reduce the travel time from Clark in Pampaga to Calamba, Laguna from about three hours to one hour and 40 minutes.
The company earlier posted a net profit of P3.03 billion from January to June, up from P2.85 billion in the same period last year.
Consolidated net revenues increased 11 percent in the six-month period to P7.44 billion from P6.68 billion in the same period last year.
NLEX attributed the growth in net income to the higher traffic volume in NLEX and SCTEX and incremental toll revenues arising from the toll adjustments that took effect on March 21 for NLEX and June 14 for SCTEX.
Average daily traffic at NLEX reached 268,222 daily vehicle entries, up by 5.3 percent from the same period last year, while average daily traffic in SCTEX reached 70,809, higher by 12.2 percent than the previous year.