The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the Philippines has revealed that construction work of the initial phase of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway (TPLEX) is 42.52% complete.

The PHP11.594bn ($267.6m) public private partnership project entails the construction in two phases of an 88.58km toll expressway from La Paz, Tarlac to Rosario, La Union.

The first phase of the project involves the construction of new two-lane expressway, 23 viaducts, eight interchanges, two central toll plaza, a toll operations centre building, 12 bridges and 63 underpasses.

The second phase will be the expansion of the expressway into four lanes to be undertaken when capacity reaches 25,000 vehicles.

The alignment runs parallel to the McArthur Highway, passing through the municipalities of Victoria, Gerona, Paniqui, Moncada and San Manuel in Tarlac, then Carmen, Urdaneta, Binalonan, Pozzorubio and Sison in Pangasinan and finally Rosario in La Union.

The national government will provide funding support of PHP3.7bn($85m) of which PHP793m ($18m) will be towards right-of-way acquisition and a PHP2.907bn ($66.9m) cash subsidy is for civil works.