- THE P2.01-billion Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway (Slex) Link is expected to be completed by year-end, about three months later than the revised target date of completion.
With the new target
date set, the project’s concessionaire AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp.
hopes to commercially open the road by the first quarter of 2015.
“We are currently
building the road and we expect project completion by the end of the
year. Now we are more than 30-percent complete; somewhere between mid to
high 30s,” Ayala Corp. Managing Director John Eric T. Francia told
reporters in a chance interview on Monday.
Earlier, AC
Infrastructure announced that the thoroughfare will begin commercial
operations in June this year, but was pushed back to the third quarter
of the year due to the late signing of a contract involving issues on
the link between Daang Hari Road and Slex.
But the recent signing
of an agreement with South Luzon Tollway Corp. (SLTC) paved the way for
the concession to “go full blast” in the construction of the
interchange, Francia explained.
The Daang Hari-Slex
project was the first public-private partnership (PPP) project auctioned
off and awarded under the flagship infrastructure program of the Aquino
administration. The project starts from the junction of Daang Reyna and
Daang Hari in Las Piñas City/Bacoor in Cavite to Slex through the
Susana Heights Interchange in Muntinlupa City, traversing the New
Bilibid Prison Reservation.
Under the initial
design, the proposed link road will use the Susana Heights Interchange
as exit and entry from the north and south of Slex, and will include the
construction of a new bridge/widening of the existing bridge crossing
Slex, as well as the expansion of the Susana Heights toll plaza.
Ayala bagged the
30-year concession contract in 2011. The project is being implemented by
the Department of Public Works and Highways under a
build-transfer-operate scheme.
Including the
P2.01-billion interchange deal, the government has awarded six PPP
contracts since it was first launched in 2010, namely:
■ P16.42-billion
first phase of the PPP School Infrastructure Program (PSIP), which was
bagged by the consortium formed by Megawide Construction Corp. and
Citicore Holdings Investment Inc. as well as the BF Corp.-Riverbanks
Development Corp. consortium in 2012;
■
P3.86-billion PSIP Phase 2 contract, partially awarded last year to
Megawide and the BSP & Co. Inc.-Vicente T. Lao Construction
consortium;
■ P15.68-billion
Ninoy Aquino International Airport expressway, given to San Miguel
Corp. unit Vertex Tollways Development Inc. in 2013;
■
P5.69-billion Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center project
that went to the Megawide-World Citi Inc. consortium also last year;
and the
■P1.72-billion
Automatic Fare Collection System project awarded to AF Consortium of
Ayala and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. on Monday.
