How the CALAX has impacted travel in the south
I love to drive. The freedom of movement is one of the few great joys in life, allowing you to explore and be connected to your loved ones whenever you want, wherever you may be.
Thus, I’ve been following the numerous infrastructure improvements our country has been enjoying over the past few years. CALAX is one of them as I regularly drive down south for work, and put the numerous test drive units I get through their respective paces. The south offers a huge variety of traffic conditions, road surfaces, and elevation changes. And through the years it is very satisfying to see life slowly improving, the sleepy provincial towns becoming busier, more progressive and more advanced.
When CALAX Subsection 4 opened a few days ago, I joined my friends for a quick drive for us to be able to be able to experience it immediately. We marveled at the speed we were able to cover the distance without any slow-moving vehicles and jaywalking pedestrians, and the usual kamikaze underbone motorcycle riders. CALAX was wide and with gradual bends and sweepers, plus equally gradual elevation changes. You are able to maintain a good average speed thereby saving time and fuel even if it’s about 6km longer than the shortest route I could have taken heading to Tagaytay.
Our friends at MPT-South saw my posts sharing my positive experience on social media and they quickly invited me to see the next section to open for CALAX, Subsection 3 which is the span between Aguinaldo-Silang Interchange to Governor’s Drive in Gen. Trias. Subsection 3 is a 9-km stretch with no planned interchanges, aside from the start and finish of this section, as it passes through farmlands with no other major spur roads or access roads to the highway or town center.
Subsection 3 is characterized by bridges and tunnels as MPT-South’s engineering teams focus on smooth transitions to and from Aguinaldo Highway and some industrial estates to minimize intrusion and disrupting traffic in the towns they will be passing through, plus minimizing the environmental impact through the areas it passes through. There are about 12 bridges and corresponding tunnels / underpasses in this section alone. Crucially, Subsection 3 should reduce travel time from the two interchanges from roughly 25 minutes with typical traffic, to right around 10 minutes. It will also help decongest the very busy Governor’s Drive and Aguinaldo Highway for vehicles traveling southwest or northeast, laterally across the province of Cavite and all the way to Biñan, Laguna where CALAX terminates at Mamplasan at the eastern end. To the west, CALAX winds up at CAVITEX, another infrastructure project of the Metro Pacific Group, MPT-South’s parent. Subsection 3 is targeted to open to the public in the second half of 2024. MPT-South has already sorted 95% of right-of-way requirements and even early on, has so far achieved 8% total construction accomplishment. They will be hiking up the pace to 11 as focus has now shifted away from opening the Aguinaldo-Silang Interchange, to the Governor Drive Interchange.
Take-up of Subsection 4, the Aguinaldo-Silang to Silang-East section is impressive as MPT-South had projected a 5,000 increase in vehicle usage from the existing average 34,000 users daily. But in the last weekend alone, a surprising 11,000 additional motorists trooped through the Aguilando-Silang Interchange showing just how highly-anticipated CALAX is to residents of Western Cavite. Safe to say, volume will probably reach 50,000 cars daily in a matter of weeks, as more and more people become accustomed to CALAX, more so as the holidays set in, and more people will be heading to Tagaytay for weddings, events, a quick weekend getaway or simply to enjoy the food. CALAX really makes the south far more accessible for everyone!
Late 2025 is the target date for completion of the entire 45-km stretch of CALAX with its 9 major interchanges and subsections (Kawit, Open Canal, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo-Silang, Silang East, Santa-Rosa Tagaytay Road, Laguna Technopark, Laguna Blvd and the terminus at Mamplasan in Biñan, Laguna).
CALAX aims to be a sustainable highway. Its toll plazas use solar power, a trend the entire Metro Pacific Group is moving towards. There are talks of expanding CALAX to Sangley Point, assuming the rumored Sangley Airport redevelopment pushes through.
With the planned CBEX / CTBEX Highway that will connect Cavite to Nasugbu, Batangas from somewhere in Silang via CALAX, the south will really get very busy in the next five years or so.
