DAGUPAN CITY, Sept. 3 (PNA)–The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has announced here that Phase II of the four-lane Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) from Rosales to Urdaneta City was already substantially completed with the construction of Phase III from Urdaneta to Rosario, La Union now being readied.
NEDA Regional Director Nestor Rillon said here that the Rosales to Urdaneta section of TPLEx, with a distance of 13.72 kilometers, is already 96.39 percent complete.
Phase III together with Phase II from Urdaneta to Rosario, La Union with a total distance of 25.83 kilometers cost Php 1.380 billion, said Rillon, speaking during the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas (KBP) forum in Dagupan City.
Phase I of TPLEx was from Tarlac to Rosales, Pangasinan.
Construction of Phase III of TPLex will be made using the old alignment approved by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which means the revision proposed earlier by former Pangasinan Fifth District Congressman Mark Cojuangco was not given weight.
In the old plan, TPLEx will end before the town of Rosario, La Union.
Rillon said that to date, DPWH was still conducting, thru acquisition of the needed right-of-way.
If plans will not miscarry, Phase III of TPLEx will be completed before President Benigno Aquino III ends his term.
The people of Region 1 would be elated to know a feasibility study now going on for the extension of TPLEx to Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, also possibly under the Public Partnership Project, said Rillon.
“I hope this project would be realized within our life time, he said. (PNA)