C3-MacArthur Highway road link nears completion

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO BY NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link, a project of the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) is nearly complete. The project’s last component is Section 10, a 5.65-kilometer four-lane elevated road. The road is designed to link MacArthur Highway in Valezuela City to C3 Road in Caloocan City, and provide a route for traffic heading to the Manila seaport. The road is estimated to cost P10.5 billion.

Another component in the NLEx Harbor Link called Segment 9—a 2.4-kilometer road that stretches from NLEx Smart Connect Interchange on NLEx Mindanao Avenue Link to MacArthur Highway in Valenzuela City—is expected to be operational in the middle of this year.

MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco said the NLEx Harbor Link would promote commerce as it would lead to “unhampered transport of goods, since there is no truck ban inside the expressways.”

Franco added that once completed, the link would also decongest traffic in major roads as the estimated daily traffic on the NLEx Harbor Link was pegged at 30,000 vehicles.

“NLEx Harbor Link as a whole will also promote a more efficient inter-regional movement of people. Cargo trucks and passenger bus drivers will not have to pass through the (cities’) congested areas,” Franco said.

With report by Kristine Felisse Mangunay