Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway

Despite calls to create an expressway system from the Philippine capital of Manila to Rosario, the southernmost town of the La Union province had been raised before the turn of the millennium.[2] These calls began to bear fruit in the mid-2000s. In 2005, construction began on the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), a linked expressway system reaching Tarlac City. This was an improvement over the North Luzon Expressway's terminus which reached only to Mabalacat, Pampanga.

In 2006, Congressional representatives from Northern Luzon took advantage of the final reading of House Bill 5749[9] to lobby for a project to extend the expressway to Rosario, as a means to boost trade, tourism, and reduce travel times in the provinces of Tarlac, Eastern Pangasinan, and La Union.[10] This lobbying led the Arroyo administration in October 2006 to announce a ten-year plan to extend the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) from Mabalacat, Pampanga, to Rosario, La Union, and extend the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) from Calamba, Laguna, to Lucena in Quezon, and eventually to Matnog, Sorsogon.[11] In 2008, the SCTEX was formally opened, setting the stage for developing the TPLEX, which would extend beyond the SCTEX's terminus in Tarlac City. The initial construction plan for the TPLEX called for it to be implemented in two phases: The first phase would involve constructing two lanes, with the second phase expanding it to four lanes to accommodate 25,000 vehicles.

The proposed superhighway would be built parallel to MacArthur Highway, passing through the city of Tarlac and the municipalities of La Paz, Gerona, Victoria, Pura, Anao, and Ramos in Tarlac, Nampicuan and Cuyapo in Nueva Ecija and Rosales, Villasis, Urdaneta, Binalonan, Laoac, Pozorrubio, and Sison in Pangasinan, and Rosario, La Union.[12]

The financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Tarlac–La Union Toll Expressway Phase 1 was eventually awarded to Private Infra Dev Corporation (now SMC TPLEX Corporation).[13][14][15]

Three local banks undertook financing the TPLEX: BDO Unibank, Development Bank of the Philippines, and Land Bank of the Philippines. This made TPLEX notable in the Infrastructure and Development Financing industry as "the first Public-Private Partnership project in the Philippines to feature an all-domestic cast of sponsors and lenders.” London-based Project Finance Magazine named the TPLEX as its "Asia Pacific Transport Deal of the Year" for 2011.[16]

The project is being implemented through public-private partnership using the build–operate–transfer (BOT) scheme in which the project proponent is responsible to design, finance and build the initial two-lane expressway. As each section is completed, it is turned over to the government, which then grants the proponent a franchise to operate and maintain the toll road, after which the proponent, once the Toll Regulatory Board issues a toll operation certificate, operates the road under a long term concession agreement with the government.

In the early development of the project, acquisition of rights of way (ROW) contributed to delays. With the TPLEX identified as a high priority government project,[17] the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was tasked with acquiring the rights of way for the project's proposed alignment, and was allocated ₱793 million ($16.6 million US) in hope that the process could be expedited.[18] However, legal disputes that had arisen regarding affected properties, notably in the Tarlac segment of the project,[19] meant delays in negotiations undertaken by the DPWH.[20][21]

The expected completion of the entire expressway caused a major delay when an unsolicited proposal was brought up to change the alignment of the project to change the location of the final interchange in Rosario, La Union.[22][23][24] Former Pangasinan 5th District Representative Mark Cojuangco proposed three alignments: one would pass through Urdaneta City, then San Fabian, and exits Brgy. Cataguintingan of Rosario, La Union. This is about 1.48 kilometers (0.92 mi) longer from the original TPLEX terminus at barangay Subusob, Rosario. The second proposal will also pass through San Fabian but will end at the original TPLEX end at barangay Subusob. The first two proposals skips Pozorrubio. The third proposal will pass through Pozorrubio, San Fabian, and then end at barangay Subusub. All proposals intend to skip the municipality of Sison. The Cordillera Administrative Region Development Council has rejected the idea.[25] The target completion date had been moved from the end of April 2017 to the end of April 2018.[26]

The first phase of the Tarlac-La Union Expressway started in January 27, 2010.[27][28] In April 2013, San Miguel Corporation announced that the segment from Tarlac City up to Urdaneta will be built with four lanes, instead of the initial plan of two lanes only. However, this also pushed back the opening day of the expressway from June 2013 to November 2013.[29]

On October 25, 2013, the Toll Regulatory Board authorized the issuance of the Toll Operation Permit for the Tarlac City–Pura segment of the TPLEX after the construction of that segment was completed by Private Infra Dev Corp. (PIDC), the all-Filipino consortium backed by conglomerates San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and DMCI Holdings, Inc.[3]

This first phase, referred to as section 1A, begins with a connection to SCTEX, then stretches 17 kilometers (11 miles) from Tarlac City to Victoria, and then to Pura, Tarlac.[3] On December 23, 2013, the expressway opened up to Ramos, Tarlac, bringing TPLEX up to 23 kilometers (14 mi) of its operational length. On April 16, 2014, phase 1 of the project was completed when the Rosales section was opened. In December 2014, phase 2 of the project, covering 13.72 kilometers (8.53 mi) from Carmen to Urdaneta, was opened to traffic, as what PIDC president Mark Dumol had announced on the day the completion of phase 1 was announced.

Pozorrubio Interchange under construction in Manila North Road in the town of Pozorrubio, Pangasinan

In December 2014, Dumol projected that the last section, covering 25.83 kilometers (16.05 mi) from Urdaneta to Rosario and including an exit in Pozorrubio, would be completed some time in 2015.[30] However, there were delays in the implementation of the project, which included a highly disputed proposal to divert the exit 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) away to San Fabian in Pangasinan. The DPWH and the PIDC announced in July 2015 that they will continue to follow the original plan for the last phase exiting in Rosario, adding that this last phase would be completed by the following year, 2016.[31]

This development phase was further subdivided into phase 3A, from Urdaneta to Pozorrubio, and phase 3B, Pozorrubio to Rosario. Section 3A would include trumpet-type interchanges at Binalonan and Pozorrubio, while section 3B include an interchange at Sison and the roundabout-style terminus interchange in Rosario, La Union.[32]

After the opening of the exit at Pozorrubio in December 2017, the DPWH said segment 3B from Pozorrubio to Rosario is expected to be completed in June 2019.[33] By mid-August 2016, the first exit of section 3A, at Binalonan Exit, had been opened to the driving public.[34] By December 6, 2017, the last exit of section 3A, at Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, had been opened to the driving public. In September 2016, DPWH said this exit of section 3A, which covers the 7.53 kilometers (4.68 mi). from Binalonan to Pozorrubio, was supposed to open in December 2016. The Binalonan to Pozorrubio section was expected to open around October 27, 2017, but the section did not open on that date due to the minor right-of-way issues on the missing 1-kilometer (0.62 mi) fence.[35]

By July 15, 2020, the Pozorrubio to Rosario segment of the expressway opened to motorists, with the exception of the Sison exit, which was still under construction as the main carriageway opened.[5][36]

As a part of the project of increasing the 200 kilometers (120 mi) radius of High Standard Highways of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) into a 300 kilometers (190 mi) radius from Metro Manila, the expressway will be extended to the city of San Fernando, La Union.[37] There are also plans to move the extension terminus to San Juan, La Union and will be divided into three segments,[38] namely:

On June 11, 2013, at the San Miguel Corporation annual stockholders meeting, Chairman, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., revealed plans to extend the expressway north to Laoag, Ilocos Norte. He said that extending the toll road to Laoag had been raised during the Arroyo administration.[39]