DPWH Chief: CALAx Initial Segment to be Opened by X'mas 2018

The chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced that the first segment of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway is slated to be completed by December this year.

CALAx is said a 44.6-kilometer, four-lane toll road that stretches from the Cavite Expressway in Kawit, Cavite to the South Luzon Expressway-Mamplasan Interchange.

During the inspection for the CALAx project, DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said that the first phase of the project, which is composed of eight sections, will be completed by December 2018 in time for the Christmas season.

This, after saying that their initial target completion of the first segment, the first seven kilometers, was February 2019.

However, they said that the target is achievable, should the weather in the coming months permits. The Philippines normally experiences around 20 typhoons annually.

Further, Villar said that once the project-- part of the 'Build Build Build' initiative of the Duterte administration-- becomes fully operational, the travel to and from Mamplasan to Kawit would be reduced from 2.5 hours to around 1 hour.

"This is all part of the government's plan to decongest Metro Manila," Villar said, adding that as soon as one segment is fully-completed, his department will open the first segment to the public even before the year 2020, which is their target completion of the project.

Villar said that the acquisition of the properties are being done aggressively by the DPWH Right-of-Way team.

Meanwhile, MPCALA Holdings Inc. president Luigi Bautista told CARMUDI PHILIPPINES that currently, the DPWH Right of Way team has acquired around half of the properties needed in the project. MPCALA is the concessionaire for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway project and is a part of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s tollroads arm, Metro Pacific Tollroads Corp. (MPTC).