N. Luzon travel traffic woes up with road works

ROSALES, Pangasinan — While opening part of the 89-kilometer Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway (TPLEx) was highly anticipated to cut the travel time up north, motorists have complained that traffic flow has actually been slowed by other road projects stretching from Caloocan City in Metro Manila to Aringgay in La Union.

Motorists and commuters have attributed the slowdown in traffic flow to the National Road Improvement Program which stretches 234 kilometers (km) from Monumento in Caloocan City to Aringgay town.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is taking the heat over the traffic situation caused by the project which started last September and is scheduled to be finished in September, 2018.

The DPWH said that 21 km of the NRIP involves concreting and reblocking works, which are now undertaken along a 12-km stretch of the national road in Pangasinan until September this year.

There will also be rehabilitation work in sections of the national road in La Union as part of the P498-million NRIP rehabilitation phase.

The next phase will cover 218 kilometers of road maintenance with a funding of P962 million until 2018.

A separate road widening project for the Manila North Road (MNR) Rosales-Sison, which has length of 42 kilometers, is also ongoing and aggravating the traffic congestion. It is expected to be finished in 2016.

But Engr. Narchito Arpilleda, spokesman of the DPWH Pangasinan 3rd District Engineering Office, defended yesterday DPWH roadworks and clarified that the oft-complained construction on the carriage way/travel way going north is implemented by China Waters.

 Arpilleda said the project is also hampered by protests from environment groups against the cutting of trees to give way to the road-widening works.