TARLAC CITY-President Benigno Aquino III will lead today the formal opening of the 88.85-kilometer Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) via an inaugural drive-trough in its Paniqui exit in Tarlac.
That portion brings to 23 kilometers the total length of the TPLEX that is operational following the opening of the 17-kilometer Phase 1A from Tarlac City to Victoria, Pura, then Gerona initially for free to the public.
At present, diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC) through its subsidiary and TPLEX concessionaire- Private Infra Dev Corporation, Inc. (PIDC) is working on the 27-kilometer stretch from Paniqui to Moncada in Tarlac then Carmen in Pangasinan including the construction of the 950-meter Agno viaduct.
PIDC eyes an April 2014 completion of this section, ahead of its December 2014 estimate.
By then, the two-hour travel time from Tarlac to Carmen will be cut to only 30 minutes.
Moreover, the remaining 25.83-kilometer part from Urdaneta, Pangasinan to Rosario, La Union will be completed by 2015.
From end-to-end, TPLEX will traverse 17 towns and two cities in the provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union and Nueva Ecija.
It connects the Northern and Central provinces of Luzon to Metro Manila via the North Luzon and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressways.
Originally designed as a two-lane road, SMC decided to upgrade the infrastructure to four lanes to ensure road safety and in anticipation of future traffic growth.
Once completed, it will cut travel time from Tarlac to La Union to only an hour. (Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu)
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