CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has announced that the Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEX) Phase 1 is nearing completion, with a target date of July 2025.

According to DPWH, the project will connect Tarlac City up to Maharlika Highway here from the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX).

The project is part of the Luzon Spine Expressway Network and a program of the Marcos administration under the Build Better More and Bagong Pilipinas that aims to create a more efficient connectivity while boosting the development outside Metro Manila.

The CLLEX has an allotted budget of P18 billion that started its construction in May 2016, was halted for two years due to the pandemic and the issues of road right of way.

DPWH cited that the Phase 1 is now at 98 percent complete, which include the 10.30-kilometer Cabanatuan Section or Contract Package 4, and will decrease the travel time from Tarlac to Cabanatuan from 70 minutes to 20 minutes for 11,200 motorists every day.

Contract Package 5 or the Zaragoza Interchange is now 73.46 percent complete and will be completed by the third quarter of 2025.

The project is fully funded by the government, while the remaining part of the CLLEX is supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Official Development Assistance.

In April 2024, Regional Development Council chairman Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said that the right of way issues were solved after landowners removed the structures that block the construction of the expressway.

With that, the construction again hastened under the lead of the DPWH Unified Project Management Office-Roads Management Cluster I.