Philippines: SLEX to Bicol — the 30-minute drive that could break Quezon’s traffic nightmare

Manila: For motorists heading from Metro Manila to Quezon and Bicol, the journey south has long been defined by one frustrating bottleneck: the stretch of the Maharlika Highway between Sto. Tomas, Batangas and Tiaong, Quezon.

That may finally begin to change this year.

The Philippine Department of Transportation (DOTr) now says the first three packages of the South Luzon Expressway Toll Road 4 (SLEX TR4) are targeted to open by December 2026 — not 2028 as previously suggested in some project timelines, as per the Philippine News Agency.

Transportation Secretary Giovanni “Banoy” Lopez said the government is targeting an inauguration around November, with operations beginning in December.

The initial opening will cover Packages A, B and C, connecting Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Tiaong, Quezon — about 31.6 km of the eventual 66.7-km toll road.

The immediate payoff could be dramatic: travel between Sto. Tomas and Tiaong is expected to fall from roughly two hours to about 30 minutes.

Once the entire TR4 is completed, the Batangas-to-Lucena trip is projected to drop from about four hours to one hour.

What exactly are TR1, TR2, TR3, TR4 and TR5?

The numbering can be confusing because the projects are essentially successive pieces of a much larger southern Luzon expressway network.

TR1 — Alabang Viaduct

Coverage: Alabang, Muntinlupa
Length: 1.2 km

TR1 involved the rehabilitation, widening and upgrading of the Alabang Viaduct. It helped modernise the southern gateway of the SLEX system.

TR2 — Filinvest to Calamba

Coverage: Filinvest, Muntinlupa → Sta. Rosa → Calamba, Laguna
Length: 27.3 km

TR2 expanded the existing SLEX corridor, including widening sections between Filinvest, Sta. Rosa and Calamba.

TR3 — Calamba to Sto. Tomas

Coverage: Calamba, Laguna → Sto. Tomas, Batangas
Length: 7.6 km

TR3 is particularly important because it extended SLEX into Batangas and connected it with the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR Tollway).

In simple terms: Metro Manila → SLEX → Calamba → Sto. Tomas

That is where the existing expressway effectively ends.

TR4 — Sto. Tomas to Lucena

This is the missing link. The project extends SLEX from Sto. Tomas, Batangas through Laguna and Quezon to Lucena.

The current expanded project is about 66.7 km, although earlier project documents described the core Sto. Tomas-Lucena alignment at roughly 57–58 km.

The revised configuration includes additional sections toward Barangay Mayao in Lucena.

The project is divided into six packages:

• Package A: Sto. Tomas → Makban

• Package B: Makban → San Pablo

• Package C: San Pablo → Tiaong

• Package D: Tiaong → Candelaria

• Package E: Candelaria → Tayabas

• Package F: Tayabas → Mayao/Lucena

The first three packages are the ones targeted for opening in December 2026.

Who is the concessionaire?

The SLEX system is controlled by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) through its infrastructure subsidiaries.

For the existing SLEX/TR1-TR4 concession, SMC SLEX Inc. is the concessionaire/investor, while Manila Toll Expressway Systems Inc. (MATES) operates and maintains the toll road.

The government, through the Toll Regulatory Board, awarded the concession in 2006.

For TR5, the project is being undertaken through a joint venture involving San Miguel Holdings Corp. and Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC).

A Supplemental Toll Operations Agreement was signed in June 2022.

TR5 — Lucena to Matnog

For long-drive fins, TR5 is the much bigger, and more exciting, sequel.

It is planned as an approximately 420-km, four-lane expressway from Lucena, Quezon to Matnog, Sorsogon, with 28 interchanges and eight segments.

Its route would broadly cover:

Lucena → Gumaca → Tagkawayan → Sipocot → Naga → Polangui → Legazpi → Sorsogon City → Matnog

TR5 would create an expressway corridor deep into the Bicol region.

The original project concept envisioned reducing travel between Lucena and Matnog from about nine hours to 5½ hours.

How long is the concession?

The original SLEX concession awarded in 2006 runs for 30 years, ending in 2036.

TR5, meanwhile, was structured as a 30-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concession.

That means these are not simply government-built roads. Private concessionaires finance, develop and operate the infrastructure for a defined period, recovering their investment through toll revenues under the terms approved by the government.

Why TR4 matters

The importance of TR4 goes far beyond shaving minutes off a road trip. The mainland Luzon itself is a long and huge island: With an area of 109,965 sq km, the island is roughly3.2 times larger than the entire Netherlands.

For decades, motorists using the existing Maharlika Highway/Asian Highway 26 corridor from Manila have had to pass through towns and urbanised areas of Laguna and Quezon.

Local traffic, buses, trucks, last-mile rides/tricycles, roadside commerce, intersections and narrow sections can turn relatively short distances into hours-long journeys.

TR4 creates a controlled-access alternative.

That means through traffic — particularly long-distance passenger and freight traffic — can bypass many of the congested sections.

The project is expected to attract around 17,000 vehicles a day, according to the latest government-related reporting.

The economic significance could be even greater.

A faster road means shorter delivery times, lower vehicle operating costs, more reliable logistics, easier movement of products, stronger tourism links, and new commercial development.

And TR4 is only half of the larger vision. Once TR4 reaches Lucena, it provides the launching point for TR5 toward Bicol.

In effect, the long-term plan is: Metro Manila toMatnog ni Sorsogon, thus creating a substantially more continuous expressway spine along southern Luzon.

A project decades in the making

TR4 has an unusually long history.

The concept dates back decades, with former President Benigno Aquino III saying in 2015 that the idea could be traced to the Marcos administration and had subsequently gone through government approval processes. The project finally broke ground in 2019.

It was originally expected to be completed much earlier, but right-of-way acquisition and other implementation problems repeatedly delayed construction.

SMC itself has identified right-of-way (ROW) acquisition as one of the principal challenges of a project of this scale.

That history makes the latest December target particularly significant — but also means motorists have reason to remain cautious about treating the target as a guaranteed full opening.

Important development in 2026

The key development in 2026: DoTr officials are no longer talking only about completion of the entire TR4; they are targeting a partial opening.

Packages A, B and C — effectively Sto. Tomas to Tiaong — are scheduled to become operational by December. That would attack one of the most notorious congestion points on the southern route first.

The remaining packages toward Candelaria, Tayabas and Lucena will follow.

And once TR4 is eventually completed, the bigger prize is even more consequential: a continuous high-speed road from Metro Manila deep into Quezon — and eventually, through TR5, toward Bicol and Matnog.

Why this could be a 'game-changer'

For commuters and motorists, the benefit is measured in hours saved.

For businesses, it is measured in logistics costs and delivery reliability.

For Quezon and Bicol, it could mean greater access to markets, ports, tourism destinations and investment.

And for the Philippine road network, TR4 and TR5 represent something more ambitious: the gradual transformation of the southern Luzon corridor from a long, congested highway journey into a connected expressway spine stretching from Metro Manila toward the Bicol peninsula.