R3ext - Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR Tollway)

[REMORA]

The Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (also known as the STAR Tollway or CALABARZON Expressway as town folks calls the tollway) is a four-lane 22 km expressway in the Philippines. The STAR Tollway is operated by STAR Infrastructure Development Corporation (SIDC). It runs from Santo Tomas to Lipa City in the province of Batangas.

PGMA inaugurated and rode through the STAR tollway extension today! Only the northbound lane is finished. In the meantime, it will be a narrow two-way road. Definitely not as awesome and breath-taking as SCTEx but it gives our Southern Tagalog corridor some breathing room for more goods to pass more efficiently. Note the unfinished portions.

Sorry for the poor-quality pics and wrong date. I mistakenly brought my 10 year-old daughter's camera.



Star southbound entry announcing the extension's March 2008 opening



Gov. Vi graces the occasion



PGMA waves to the crowd



extension entry from Lipa



Compressed Natural Gas buses joins the motorcade!



Unfinished tollway portions



A couple more kms from here and we are in Batangas City

[REMORA]

Already, goods are passing through!!

[diz]

Another pat on the back for PGMA.

[bariQ]

another accomplishment that will never reach the frontpage

[habagatcentral1]

Originally Posted by REMORA

Gov. Vi graces the occasion

Si Val, Si Val, Si Val na walang malay!!!

Anyway, they ended up CALABARZON expressway somewhere in Balagtas right? After that the bypass road leads it towards Batangas Pier. It is really an important component for transportation infra in Southern Tagalog.

By the way, does anybody know when will they extend CALABARZON Expressway towards SLEX? I find Calamba-Santo Tomas Road quite crowded nowadays.

[jefflacs]

Originally Posted by habagatcentral1

Si Val, Si Val, Si Val na walang malay!!!

Anyway, they ended up CALABARZON expressway somewhere in Balagtas right? After that the bypass road leads it towards Batangas Pier. It is really an important component for transportation infra in Southern Tagalog.

By the way, does anybody know when will they extend CALABARZON Expressway towards SLEX? I find Calamba-Santo Tomas Road quite crowded nowadays.

last time I pass by the end of SLEX march 1, 2008, sinisimulan na ung extension to star, nakita ko na kasing naclear na ung end ng SLEX pero hinde pa nagsisimula ung construction. I think it will be just a 2 lane highway base sa nakita ko.

[habagatcentral1]

Hmm, I see. Maybe like the one at Balagtas-Batangas Pier ByPass Road?

[manchowyin]

Thanks, REMORA, for your valuable posts!

[bacolodchamp]

Originally Posted by bariQ

another accomplishment that will never reach the frontpage

you bet.

[vinsabay]

question lang... are they going to build a flyover from the end of star tollway extension to the Balagtas-Batangas Pier ByPass Road? it will surely create traffic kasi they need to cross the national highway before they reach the bypass road.

[jefflacs]

Originally Posted by vinsabay

question lang... are they going to build a flyover from the end of star tollway extension to the Balagtas-Batangas Pier ByPass Road? it will surely create traffic kasi they need to cross the national highway before they reach the bypass road.

Please correct me If I'm wrong, pero kasi last may 11, 2007, nung pumunta ako sa batangas pier, yeah there is a construction of a flyover near the batangas pier, I am assuming this is the star tollway extension to batangas pier.

[absinthe_888]

GMA opens Batangas tollway
By Arnell Ozaeta
Thursday, March 27, 2008
http://philstar.com/index.php?Nation...aid=2008032664

Lipa City – President Arroyo graced yesterday’s “soft opening” of the P2.5-billion Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) tollway that stretches from the interchange here to Batangas City.

Mrs. Arroyo was accompanied by Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, and STAR Tollway Corp. president Melvin Nazareno and chairman Mark Dumon. In her speech before local officials, students, heads of different offices of the DPWH and DOTC, and leaders of the maritime and transport sectors, the President congratulated those responsible for completing the project, which she said would benefit residents of Batangas and other Southern Tagalog provinces.

She particularly cited Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto, former senator Ralph Recto, Rep. Mark Leandro Mendoza, Eileen Ermita-Buhain and Vicky Reyes, and businessman F.F Cruz, whose firm constructed Phase 2 of the STAR tollway. Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo reiterated her directive to the DOTC to allocate P1 billion from the Special Pollution Control Fund for environmentally sustainable transport projects such as the use of alternative fuels like compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas for public transport.

The STAR tollway is the vital link from Metro Manila through the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), one of the fastest growing areas in the Luzon Urban Beltway supra region.

[Lucentino]

IMHO: I hope they wont name it officially as "CALABARZON Expressway"... it doesn't traverse any portion of Cavite, Rizal and Quezon (that's 3 out of 5)... although all these provinces will benefit from it.

This road will mainly serve the provinces of Batangas & Laguna, as well as the processing zones therein, together with the international port of Batangas. It is also beneficial to the provinces traversed by the Nautical Hi-way to Vis-Min...

Maybe Nautical Expressway would suffice?

[Potchot69]

Now that you mentioned it, can anyone please start a thread on the int'l seaport in Batangas? I've been browsing the Batangas thread but the entries are mostly about Lipa. Tnx a lot guys!

[habagatcentral1]

Originally Posted by Lucentino

IMHO: I hope they wont name it officially as "CALABARZON Expressway"... it doesn't traverse any portion of Cavite, Rizal and Quezon (that's 3 out of 5)... although all these provinces will benefit from it.

This road will mainly serve the provinces of Batangas & Laguna, as well as the processing zones therein, together with the international port of Batangas. It is also beneficial to the provinces traversed by the Nautical Hi-way to Vis-Min...

Maybe Nautical Expressway would suffice?

Originally Posted by Potchot69

Now that you mentioned it, can anyone please start a thread on the int'l seaport in Batangas? I've been browsing the Batangas thread but the entries are mostly about Lipa. Tnx a lot guys!

Yeah. I was wondering why placards at the bus state it as CALABARZON? Anyway, hopefuly these projects would go as planned, and hopefuly a similar project (except for the Coastal Rd extention) would proceed in Cavite too. Also improve accessibility between southern Batangas and Cavite.

[pau_p1]

oh so STAR was extended finally to Batangas City... hmm I wonder when they'll connect the northern end to SLEX...

[Coffee]

Waitaminute, so the STAR expressway is already extended to Batangas City? Err, or it's just the northbound portion that's finished, and they're using it as a two lane road? When will the southbound portion be done? This is a development I've been waiting for for a long time but I didn't even realize construction had started yet... I don't hear about this in the news at all!

[vinsabay]

Originally Posted by jefflacs

Please correct me If I'm wrong, pero kasi last may 11, 2007, nung pumunta ako sa batangas pier, yeah there is a construction of a flyover near the batangas pier, I am assuming this is the star tollway extension to batangas pier.

ahh yeah. that one's already operational na and is located at bolbok, batangas city. the one i'm pertaining to is at balagtas, batangas city. IMO, kelangan din ng flyover dun so that it won't cross the national highway

[manchowyin]

Originally Posted by Coffee

Waitaminute, so the STAR expressway is already extended to Batangas City? Err, or it's just the northbound portion that's finished, and they're using it as a two lane road? When will the southbound portion be done? This is a development I've been waiting for for a long time but I didn't even realize construction had started yet... I don't hear about this in the news at all!

For it to be news, it has to be labelled "Truth". And according to the definition of a good number of broadsheets and TV stations, accomplished infrastructure projects do not constitute "Truth". For "Truth" to happen, you need to put several things together; for example, you have to have a squealer.

[leechtat]

nice one..