By Joel E. Zurbano and Jenniffer B. Austria

THE P2.7-billion elevated road connecting the South Luzon Expressway and Ninoy Aquino International Airport has been completed, the Public Works Department announced yesterday.

?This project will surely boost tourism and economic activity as travel to and from the country?s premier airport through the overhead highway will avoid perennial traffic jams in Para?aque and Pasay,? said Public Works Undersecretary Ramon Aquino.

Construction of the expressway started in October 2003, with skyways linking it to Terminal 3 of the airport.

It consists of improvements to the Nichols interchange, ramps connecting the new airport?s passenger terminal to skyway traffic coming from Makati and Alabang, and a viaduct and ramp traversing Sales Street.

Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said the project, completed under a build-operate-transfer scheme, would be a model for other infrastructure projects.

The expressway would eventually connect to Roxas Boulevard and to the Cavite coastal road and the Manila Bay reclamation area, he said.

First Philippine Infrastructure Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said it would spend P20 billion over the next three years?P2.1 billion this year alone?to build an alternate link between the north and south expressways.

Metro Pacific Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the project would cut travel time from the north to the south expressways to 16 minutes from the usual one hour through the congested Edsa.

The first stage, which begins this year, will link Valenzuela to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City through a 2.8-kilometer road.

The second stage of the project aims to relieve traffic in the Balintawak area, and it will connect Malabon to C-5 through a 22-kilometer road.

The company said it had already secured a seven-year loan from the Philippine National Bank to fund the project.

Balintawak in Quezon City is now the only access road for vehicles going to the North Luzon Expressway from the south. The 84-kilometer expressway is the main artery to the major economic and tourism centers north of Manila, including the Clark Special Economic Zone, the Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic Zone, and the industrial parks in Bulacan, Bataan, Pangasinan, Tarlac, La Union and Baguio City.

Pangilinan said the company was also studying a plan to build a P15-billion, 88-kilometer expressway from Tarlac to Metro Manila.

A stockholders? meeting yesterday agreed to change the name of its Manila North Tollways Corp. unit to Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Metro Pacific acquired First Philippine Infrastructure Corp. from the Lopez group for P12.6 billion last year.

Since then, the company has diversified into port operations in partnership with Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc., which is owned by Reghis Romero II.

The two companies have signed an agreement with the Philippine Ports Authority to privatize Manila North Harbor.