The local government of Silang, Cavite has pitched in its support to address the right-of-way (ROW) issues that have delayed the completion of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) for two and a half years.
Silang Mayor Kevin Anarna said the local government unit (LGU) will meet with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and private landowners to “speed up the completion of the project that is crucial to its development and achievement of cityhood status by 2025.”
“We are very willing to help MPCALA [Holdings Inc.] and the national government to fast-track the opening of the Calax Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange. Right now, we are planning to set up a meeting with the owner of the land to discuss the right-of-way issues. Maybe, we can get a compromise agreement before the end of the year,” he said.
Currently, the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange subsection of the Calax is at 64 percent completion rate. One critical portion of the expressway lacks a parcel of land roughly 450 meters long that prevents the company from opening another section of the Calax.
This has caused the company to commit to open the said segment by the first quarter of 2023, a quarter delayed from the recent December 2022 commitment.
The delay in completion of the Calax subsection, Anarna said, hampered the development of inner roads of the municipality.
“Once the Calax Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange is completed, we can now start the construction of inner roads so that we will be accessible to local tourists and investors who want to invest in Silang,” Anarna said.
This fifth of the eight segments of the 45-kilometer expressway spans at 3.9-km, with 2×2 lane expressway from Silang East Interchange to Aguinaldo Highway in Cavite. Upon completion, this will serve more motorists, including the 298,000 residents of Silang, given the reduced traffic situation.
Current average daily traffic is 33,000 from Mamplasan to Silang East interchange. This is expected to increase to 40,000 when the Silang (Aguinaldo) Interchange finally opens, thus, easing the usual bottleneck along the 41-km Aguinaldo Highway—the busiest main thoroughfare in Cavite—as well as Governor’s Drive and Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road.
To date, Calax’s operational segment spans 14.24-kilometer with interchanges at Greenfield-Mamplasan, Laguna Technopark, Laguna Boulevard, Santa Rosa-Tagaytay, and Silang East. Other interchanges of Calax, namely, Open Canal, Governor’s Drive, and Kawit, are targeted to be completed by 2023. Upon completion of the entire public-private partnership (PPP) project of the DPWH and MHI, it will connect to the Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) in Kawit, Cavite.
