The Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) is building a P155-billion 'Urban Ring Road', a network linking expressways in all four directions of Metro Manila to make travel seamless for motorists.
By-passing the heart of every city the ring road is designed to improve circulation and assure unimpeded traffic flow, revealed Rodrigo E. Franco, MPTC President and CEO.
Roads are akin to a “circulatory system”, he explained. Building arterial roads that by-pass the heart of the metropolis can decongest and revitalize the city.
The MPTC Urban Ring Road will be a high-speed, high-standard network of expressways within and around Metro Manila.
It will decongest local roads and strengthen the road network configuration by separating local in-city trips from inter-city to inter-regional travel.
Composed of MPTC’s C-5 Expressway, C-5 South Link, and the NLEX – CAVITEX Port Link Expressway,the Ring Road toll roads lead motorists to avoid the congested traffic of CP Garcia Avenue/Katipunan Avenue to South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) via existing C-5 Road,EDSA North and Quezon Avenue.
These traverse Manila and Quezon City, and by-pass heavy traffic on EDSA South, Baclaran and Taft Avenue that cover the cities of Makati, Paranaque, Pasay, and the southside of Manila.
After the NLEX extensions Segment 8.1 and 8.2 past Mindanao Avenue, the motoring public will soon be able to use the C-5 Expressway, a 19.4km 62.7-billion project that will connect Quezon City to Taguig.
The usual two-hour travel time from NLEX to SLEX via the existing C-5 Road will be reduced to only 15 minutes.
Linking up with the C-5 Expressway is the CAVITEX C-5 South Link, a seven-kilometer tollway.
It will serve as an alternative route from C-5 Road going to Roxas Boulevard and the CAVITEX Zapote Interchange, other than the NAIA Expressway, East and West Service Roads, and Sucat Road.
Travel time from C-5 Road near Libingan ng mga Bayani to CAVITEX Zapote Interchange will be reduced from an average of one hour to only 10 minutes.
As C-5 South Link connects to CAVITEX, the NLEX–CAVITEX Port Link Expressway Segment 1 will continue the loop and provide relief to motorists without negotiating such congested national and local roads as Roxas Boulevard and Macapagal Boulevard.
The NLEX–CAVITEX Port Link ExpresswaySegment 1 will start at Pacific Avenue in Paranaque and will end up at Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City.
It will traverse Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard and will alsoconnect seamlessly to other existing high speed expressways like Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), NAIA Expressway (NAIAX) and SLEX.
Overall, the MPTC Urban Ring Road is “designed to put order in urban transport,” according to Franco
“It’s really a case of good traffic management not matching the rapid growth of urbanization,” he elaborated.
“The economic losses of city traffic are enormous. We’d like to help manage it, and the MPTC Urban Ring Road is our contribution,” the President noted.
“I’d like to say it is a powerful idea whose time has come in the Philippines,” Franco stressed.
Completing the MPTC Urban Ring Road is Segment 1 of the NLEX–CAVITEX Port Link Expressway, which will be called NLEX Harbor Link–Port Area Section.
More than five kilometers long, the elevated NLEX Harbor Link–Port Area Section will run alongside the Manila Bay, to Anda Circle in the Port Area, then to R-10 Road and all the way up to NLEX via the NLEX Harbor Link.
It will create a round-the-clock unimpeded transportation of goods within and through Metro Manilafor a faster and more efficient movement of people and goods without having to negotiate the now congested national and local roads of Metro Manila.