Ah, expressways. Whether you are aware of it or not, many of your fond memories are linked to freeways.
Expressways are memory lanes
Expressways (and toll roads) are always connected to your always much-awaited weekly event: Sunday family day. Aren’t we right? Let us also go way back. They are also linked to that sweet, core memory, long before you had kids: that Baguio trip with your beloved parents and ALL of your siblings, back in the day when you were all dare we say, undergraduates. It has been a while since then, right? This one long but easy road is also linked when you and your heaven-sent spouse, just at the tiptoe level of your inspiring, steady romance, decided to go on a spontaneous trip to Tagaytay for your third date.
Expressways have always been part of our lives. SLEX, NLEX, you name it, we have all been there during the best and most memorable events and trips we ever had. But, lo and behold, new and great times are here since there is a new expressway (yes, you read that right!) up and coming just a stretch away from your Crown Asia house and lot for sale!
Introducing: CALAX
Woah, right? They have finally upgraded from “LEX” to “LAX”. But, heed not, for this new addition is definitely not laxing to our lives. Just like any other expressway that we have grown to know and love, CALAX, short for Cavite-Laguna Expressway, will bring anything and everything great experiences and opportunities closer to your Crown Asia house and lot for sale.
So what to expect from CALAX?
Photo from morefunwithjuan.com
A run-through about this run-through
The provinces of Cavite and Laguna are growing industrial and commercial centers in the Southern Tagalog Region (people just REALLY love Tagaytay and EK, don’t you think?), traffic congestion in SLEX has been more hectic than usual. Don’t you feel it during your Sunday getaways with your fam? Thus, spearheaded by the Department of Public Works and Highways-DPWH, and DPWH Secretary, Mark Villar, but also under a public-private partnership arrangement, the antidote to the irony of the name of expressways and other major road networks in the area, particularly the Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway, and Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road: the Cavite-Laguna Expressway. The DPWH acts as the implementing agency while the private component is under MPCALA Holdings, a subsidiary of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation. The proposed expressway project aims to provide faster, safer, more comfortable, and reliable routes between Bacoor and Kawit, Cavite areas, and the Laguna and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) areas; thus enhancing trade and socio-economic activities around them.
With a Php 35.43 Billion project cost (budget from both private and public sectors), the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) involves the financing, design and construction, operation, and maintenance of the entire 4-lane, 44.63 km closed-system tolled expressway connecting CAVITEX and SLEX. The Project will start at the CAVITEX, the freeway in Kawit, Cavite, and end at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna. The Project will pass through major cities and have interchanges in 9 locations, namely: Kawit, Daang Hari, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway, Silang East IC, Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay, Laguna Boulevard, Laguna Technopark, and a Toll Barrier before SLEX.
The 44.69km-long Cavite-Laguna closed-system tolled expressway was designed in accordance with the standards of the DPWH Road Safety Design Manual, the DPWH Highway Safety Design Standard, and the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 2004. Quite interesting, isn’t it? Incorporating two perspectives.
It will incorporate four lanes, each having a width of the usual 3.5m. The inner and outer shoulder widths are 1m and 2.5m respectively. The right-of-way (ROW) width required for the expressway will be, of course, 60m.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the Cavite section was held back in March 2019. The first section of the CALAX project was opened to traffic in February 2020. As of March 2022, the Laguna segment is more than 90% complete while the Cavite segment is at over 24% complete. Thus, the whole alignment of CALAX is more than 50% complete. It’s fully operational from the Mamplasan rotunda to the Silang East Interchange.
To button it up, the interstate project aims to be a high-speed road network between the Cavite and Laguna provinces located south of Manila in the Philippines. Construction began in June 2017, while the project is scheduled for completion in 2022.
Photo from portcalls.com
It will also provide efficient transportation links for approximately 11 billion people living in the Cavite and Laguna provinces, as well as benefit economic zones within the area. This, of course, includes you and your family, especially when you’ve got a house and lot for sale in one of the strategic areas Crown Asia has offered you such as Valenza in Santa Rosa City, Laguna! Travel time from Manila to the south will be greatly reduced and it will give an option other than the South Luzon Expressway.
Another feather in the cap is that this project will help promote our beloved CALABARZON (Region IV-A) region as we quote “a preferred destination for investment and growth”. What would this mean? Not only that this road will bring you and your family to your favorite destinations quicker and more efficiently, but it will also literally bring you more wonders and attractions that have not existed before! You know how business works. Where there are more people, that is where everything else would go. We are looking forward to these new projects that come along CALAX just as you should too!
And another great news about this project? The construction of the new expressway is expected to create 280 jobs. Yay to our fellow Filipinos!
To add more details (it never hurts to be more informed as something as groundbreaking as this), the project consists of two sections, Cavite and Laguna. The Cavite stretch, which is 26.48km-long, will start from Tirona Highway in Cavite’s Kawit municipality and end at Aguinaldo Highway in the Silang municipality.
The 18.15km-long Laguna division will begin from Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Cavite, and will connect SLEX via Mamplasan Interchange in Binan, Laguna. The project will also feature one close toll collection system and 12.207km-long bridges, including a 4,618km-long viaduct. The expressway will allow a speed limit of 100km/h.
For more information regarding CALAX, we have linked you up with one of the bosses: Mr. Ronald M. Mangilin who is the project monitoring officer from the Public-Private Partnership Center of this up-and-coming project that will surely link you and your prime Crown Asia house and lot for sale to many more opportunities and dreams never to be decimated. You may contact him through this number: (+632) 8709.4146 local 5205.
Read more: Roads Connecting South Luzon to the Metro
