Arroyo order: Open SCTEx, interchanges on time
President Macapagal-Arroyo has given top officials of the Bases Conversion Development Authority the “marching orders” to finish three additional interchanges of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway in Pampanga in time for the opening of the 94-km tollway in March 2008.
“That’s the marching orders to them—to work double time,” Relly Fajardo, presidential adviser for Central Luzon, told the Inquirer on Wednesday.
“The instruction of the President is for them to finish all three interchanges in March 2008, which is the schedule of the opening of the SCTEx,” Fajardo said.
Doable
“Kaya (It is doable),” she said of the remaining four months to complete the interchanges prior to the revised opening schedule of the P27-billion national flagship project.
The original schedule was to open the 50.5-km Subic-Clark segment this month and the 43.27-km Clark-Tarlac section in August.
While the Japanese contractor of the Clark-Tarlac portion rushed to beat the deadline with claims for “acceleration cost,” its counterpart in the Subic-Clark section was given an extension of four months, without any penalty, to cope with delays due largely to the road’s right-of-way problem.
The plan to build three Pampanga interchanges, cancelled some years back due to lack of funds, was ordered restored by Ms Arroyo on Nov. 6 to increase access to the Subic and Clark freeports and Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac City. These economic zones are what the SCTEx are linking by an hour of travel time.
Ms Arroyo moved to restore the original plan as officials of local governments, the BCDA and the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council argued on where to locate the site of only one interchange that she approved in August.
2 other sites
Should there be hitches in the additional work, Fajardo said the BCDA would consider the construction of an interchange inside Clark as the “priority.”
The two others are located near the Basa Air Base of the Philippine Air Force in Floridablanca and in Barangay Dolores in Porac.
Asked if the deadline for interchanges could be met, Narciso Abaya, BCDA president and chief executive officer, said on Thursday: “Puwede siguro… sa tingin ko, very close (Perhaps we can… I think, the chances are very close).”
“I just talked to the President a while ago and I told her that if there’s delay, this would not interfere with the opening of (the Subic-Clark and Clark-Tarlac portions) because the underpasses are already in place,” Abaya said in a phone interview.
By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer
“That’s the marching orders to them—to work double time,” Relly Fajardo, presidential adviser for Central Luzon, told the Inquirer on Wednesday.
“The instruction of the President is for them to finish all three interchanges in March 2008, which is the schedule of the opening of the SCTEx,” Fajardo said.
Doable
“Kaya (It is doable),” she said of the remaining four months to complete the interchanges prior to the revised opening schedule of the P27-billion national flagship project.
The original schedule was to open the 50.5-km Subic-Clark segment this month and the 43.27-km Clark-Tarlac section in August.
While the Japanese contractor of the Clark-Tarlac portion rushed to beat the deadline with claims for “acceleration cost,” its counterpart in the Subic-Clark section was given an extension of four months, without any penalty, to cope with delays due largely to the road’s right-of-way problem.
The plan to build three Pampanga interchanges, cancelled some years back due to lack of funds, was ordered restored by Ms Arroyo on Nov. 6 to increase access to the Subic and Clark freeports and Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac City. These economic zones are what the SCTEx are linking by an hour of travel time.
Ms Arroyo moved to restore the original plan as officials of local governments, the BCDA and the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council argued on where to locate the site of only one interchange that she approved in August.
2 other sites
Should there be hitches in the additional work, Fajardo said the BCDA would consider the construction of an interchange inside Clark as the “priority.”
The two others are located near the Basa Air Base of the Philippine Air Force in Floridablanca and in Barangay Dolores in Porac.
Asked if the deadline for interchanges could be met, Narciso Abaya, BCDA president and chief executive officer, said on Thursday: “Puwede siguro… sa tingin ko, very close (Perhaps we can… I think, the chances are very close).”
“I just talked to the President a while ago and I told her that if there’s delay, this would not interfere with the opening of (the Subic-Clark and Clark-Tarlac portions) because the underpasses are already in place,” Abaya said in a phone interview.
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5:20 PM
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