President Rodrigo Duterte led the inauguration of the South Luzon Expressway elevated extension project on Tuesday.

"We welcome this infrastructure development at a time when our economy is slowly opening up and recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," Duterte said during the event in Muntinlupa City also attended by SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Ang.

"Indeed, this project is a strong testament to the Administration’s commitment to building resilient infrastructure projects despite the present challenges," he said.

"I am personally excited to see the outcome of this expansion project, which is expected to promote greater mobility, help ease traffic and redound to the economic growth and productivity in Metro Manila and its surrounding areas," he added.

For his part, Ang said "since we soft-opened the southbound SLEX Extension last December 10, motorists in the south have seen a major improvement in the traffic situation."

"It has provided relief to thousands of motorists who go home every day to Muntinlupa, Las Pinas, Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas. With both the southbound and northbound section of the SLEX Extension now fully operational, travel to and from the south is easier and faster than ever,” he said.

“We thank President Duterte and his Build Build Build team, especially the Department of Public Works and Highways, headed by Sec. Mark Villar who was with us at the start of the project and through most of its construction, as well as Department of Transportation Sec. Art Tugade. They both recognized the importance of this project and gave us all the support we needed from start to end,” said Ang.

“I’m also very grateful for the help and cooperation of so many other stakeholders, from the local government of Muntinlupa and their traffic department; our private sector stakeholders, especially Filinvest Land, who made possible the required rerouting of traffic, and the utility companies, among others, for their cooperation,” he added.

The four-kilometer, two-laned southbound alignment of the project was soft-opened to the public in early December, effectively connecting the Skyway in Sucat to SLEX at Susanna Heighs in Muntinlupa--bypassing the Alabang viaduct, while improving direct access to both the Alabang area and the Alabang-Zapote Road.

Ang said the northbound and southbound lanes of the SLEX Elevated Extension project which can accommodate 200,000 cars per day aims to provide "a long-term solution to worsening traffic on the Skyway, SLEX, and public roads leading to and from them, which used to stretch for many kilometers, due largely to the increase in vehicular volume over the decades, and bottleneck traffic at the Alabang viaduct." Robina Asido/DMS