Bypass road project connecting Pampanga towns in the works

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is currently working on a bypass road project aimed to connect the municipalities of Sto. Tomas, Guagua, Minalin, Sasmuan, and Lubao in the Province of Pampanga.

DPWH Secretary Roger G. Mercado said that the road project, known as the Pampanga Southern Bypass Road Project, is a multi-year endeavor by the DPWH Regional Office 3 to address the perennial traffic congestion on Pampanga’s major roads including Manila North Road and Jose Abad Santos Avenue.

According to DPWH Region 3 Director Roseller A. Tolentino, the construction of the new bypass road started in 2018 with the road opening of 2.12 kilometers for the Lubao-Guagua Section and another 1.67-kilometer for the Sto. Tomas-Minalin Section.

Also included in the project’s scopes of work were the clearing and construction of the roadway embankment while simultaneously building a series of box culverts along various sections of the project’s proposed alignment.

Considered as one the priority projects of DPWH Region 3, a total of P4.08 billion was already allocated from 2018 to 2022.

DPWH Secretary Mercado added that a budget of P281 million was also earmarked in 2021 for the construction of two (2) bridges along the road’s alignment.

As of April 2022, the 104.80-lineal meter bridge at the Lubao-Guagua Section is 68.13 percent complete while the 76.60-lineal meter bridge at the Sto. Tomas-Minalin Section has an accomplishment rate of 77.43 percent.

The completion of the whole stretch of the Pampanga Southern Bypass Road is expected to provide better accessibility among Central Luzon provinces by easing vehicular volume on Jose Abad Santos Avenue (JASA) and other peripheral Pampanga roads leading to Bataan and Zambales in the west and Bulacan in the east. (DPWH)