Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway

Travelling north on the TPLEx towards Pura

Travelling south towards Ramos

The Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway starts in Tarlac City as a physical extension of the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway. The expressway passes through the municipalities of Victoria, Pura, Ramos, and Anao. Significant portions of the expressway in Tarlac are built on raised land or embankments, and existing roads cross through underpasses built on cuts on the embankment. The road enters Cuyapo in Nueva Ecija without any major junction, before entering Pangasinan, at the municipality of Rosales.

The viaduct across Agno River at the Rosales–Villasis boundary.

The Pangasinan segment of TPLEX starts at the municipality of Rosales. The expressway then crosses through a viaduct over the Agno River. The road then enters Urdaneta, which is served by a single interchange that connects with MacArthur Highway. The Urdaneta exit served as the expressway's northern terminus until the extension to Binalonan opened. Past Urdaneta Exit, TPLEX crosses above the Manila North Road, then passes over Binalonan and Pozorrubio. The last exit within the province is Sison, which is still under construction and is not yet included in the opening of the main carriageway.

Past the Sison exit, the expressway then crosses through a viaduct over the Bued River. The road then enters the municipality of Rosario, where the main, northern toll plaza is located. Past the Rosario toll plaza is a spur road that connects to the Rosario rotunda. This is also the northern terminus of the expressway.

Although calls for the creation of an expressway system that would stretch from the Philippine Capital of Manila all the way to Rosario, the southernmost town of the province of La Union, had been raised even before the turn of the millennium,[13] these calls first actually began to bear concrete fruit in the mid-2000s.

In 2005, construction began on the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), creating a linked expressway system which reached all the way to Tarlac City, Tarlac – an improvement over the North Luzon Expressway's terminus which reached only up to Mabalacat, Pampanga.

In 2006, Congressional representatives from Northern Luzon took advantage of the final reading of House Bill 5749[14] to lobby for a project that would extend the expressway system to Rosario, as a means to boost trade, tourism, and speed up transportation in the provinces of Tarlac, Eastern Pangasinan, and La Union.[15] As a result of this lobbying, the Arroyo administration announced in October 2006 a ten-year period in which the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) would be extended from Mabalacat, Pampanga, to Rosario, La Union, and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) would be extended from Calamba, Laguna, to Lucena in Quezon, and eventually up to Matnog, Sorsogon.[16]

In 2008, the SCTEx was formally opened, setting the stage for the development of the TPLEx, which would extend beyond the SCTEx' terminus in Tarlac City.

The initial plan for the construction of the TPLEx was that it would be carried out in two phases: The first phase would involve the construction of two lanes while the second phase entailed its expansion into four lanes to accommodate 25,000 vehicles.

The proposed superhighway would be built parallel to MacArthur Highway, passing through the city of Tarlac and the municipalities of La Paz, Gerona, Victoria, Pura, Anao, and Ramos in Tarlac, Nampicuan and Cuyapo in Nueva Ecija and Rosales, Villasis, Urdaneta, Binalonan, Laoac, Pozorrubio, and Sison in Pangasinan, and Rosario, La Union.[17]

The financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Tarlac–La Union Toll Expressway phase 1 was eventually awarded to Private Infra Dev Corporation (PIDC)[18][19]

Three local banks undertook the financing of the TPLEX: BDO Unibank, Development Bank of the Philippines, and Land Bank of the Philippines. This made TPLEX notable in the Infrastructure and Development Financing industry "the first Public-Private Partnership project in the Philippines to feature an all-domestic cast of sponsors and lenders.” London-based Project Finance Magazine named the TPLEX as its "Asia Pacific Transport Deal of the Year" for 2011.[20]

The project is being implemented through public-private partnership using the build–operate–transfer (BOT) scheme in which the project proponent is responsible for the design, financing, and construction of the initial two-lane expressway.

As each section of the toll road is completed, it is turned over to the government. The government then grants the proponent the franchise to operate and maintain the toll road, after which the proponent, after a certificate to commence toll operation issued by the Toll Regulatory Board, operates the road on behalf of the government under a long term concession agreement.

A contributor to delays in the early development of the TPLEX was the acquisition of the right of way (ROW) for the project. With the TPLEX identified as a high priority government project,[21] the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was given the task of acquiring the right of way for the project's proposed alignment, and was allocated P793 million in the hope that the process could be expedited.[22] However, numerous legal disputes regarding affected properties, notably in the Tarlac segment of the project,[23] meant delays in the negotiation process being undertaken by the DPWH.[24][25]

The expected completion of the entire expressway caused a major delay when an unsolicited proposal was brought up to change the alignment of the project to change the location of the final interchange in Rosario, La Union.[26][27][28] Former Pangasinan 5th District Representative Mark Cojuangco proposed three alignments: one would pass through Urdaneta City, then San Fabian, and exits Brgy. Cataguintingan of Rosario, La Union. This is about 1.48 kilometers longer from the original TPLEX end at Barangay Subusob, Rosario. The second proposal will also pass through San Fabian but will end at the original TPLEX end at Barangay Subusob. The first two proposals skips Pozorrubio. The third proposal will pass through Pozorrubio, San Fabian, and then end at Barangay Subusub. All proposals intend to skip the municipality of Sison. The Cordillera Administrative Region Development Council has rejected the idea.[29] The target completion date had been moved from end of April 2017 to end April 2018.[30]

Approaching Victoria exit. The first phase (Tarlac City–Victoria–Pura) was opened to motorists in November 2013

The first phase of the Tarlac-La Union Toll Expressway started in January 2010.[31][32]

In April 2013, San Miguel Corporation announced that the segment from Tarlac City up to Urdaneta will be built with four lanes, instead of the initial plan of two lanes only. However, this also pushed back the opening day of the expressway from June 2013 to November 2013.[33]

On October 25, 2013, the Toll Regulatory Board authorized the issuance of the Toll Operation Permit for the Tarlac City–Pura segment of the TPLEX after the construction of that segment was completed by Private Infra Dev Corp. (PIDC), the all-Filipino consortium backed by conglomerates San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and DMCI Holdings, Inc.[2]

This first phase, referred to as section 1A, begins with a connection to SCTEX, then stretches 17 kilometers (11 miles) from Tarlac City to Victoria, and then to Pura, Tarlac. It is expected to cut current travel time to Baguio by as much as 40 minutes.[2]

On December 23, 2013, the expressway opened up to Ramos, Tarlac, bringing TPLEX up to 23 kilometers (14 mi) of its operational length.

On April 16, 2014, phase 1 of the project was completed when the Rosales section was opened in time for the Lenten traffic and it is the halfway to go to Baguio.

In December 2014, section 2 of the project, covering 13.72 km from Carmen to Urdaneta, was opened to traffic, as what PIDC president Mark Dumol had announced on the day the completion of phase 1 was announced.

Pozorrubio Interchange under construction in MacArthur Highway in the town of Pozorrubio, Pangasinan

In the December 2014 announcement for the opening of phase 2, Dumol also projected that the last section, covering 25.83 km from Urdaneta to Rosario and including an exit in Pozorrubio, would be completed some time in 2015.[34] However, there were delays in the implementation of the project, which included a highly disputed proposal to divert the exit 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) away to San Fabian in Pangasinan.

The DPWH and the PIDC announced in July 2015 that they will continue to follow the original plan for the last phase exiting in Rosario, adding that this last phase would be completed by the following year, 2016.[35]

This development phase was further subdivided into phase 3A, from Urdaneta to Pozorrubio, and phase 3B, Pozorrubio to Rosario. Section 3A would include trumpet-type interchanges at Binalonan and Pozorrubio, while section 3B include an interchange at Sison and the roundabout-style terminus interchange in Rosario, La Union.[36]

After the opening of the exit at Binalonan in December 2017, the DPWH said segment 3B from Pozorrubio to Rosario is expected to be completed in June 2019.[4]

By mid-August 2016, the first exit of section 3A, at Binalonan Exit, had been opened to the driving public. Notably, this created easy access to the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag, located only 10 minutes away from the new exit.[5]

By December 6, 2017, the last exit of section 3A, at Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, had been opened to the driving public. In September 2016, DPWH said this exit of section 3A, which covers the 7.53-km from Binalonan to Pozorrubio, was supposed to open in December 2016. The Binalonan to Pozorrubio section was expected to open around October 27, 2017, but the section did not open on that date due to the minor right-of-way issues on the missing 1-kilometer fence.[7]

Aerial view of the Pozorrubio–Rosario segment of the expressway

By July 15, 2020, the Pozorrubio to Rosario segment of the expressway opened to motorists, with the exception of the Sison exit, which was still under construction as the main carriageway opened.[9][37]

As a part of the project of increasing the 200 kilometers (120 mi) radius of High Standard Highways of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) into a 300 kilometers (190 mi) radius from Metro Manila, the expressway will be extended to the city of San Fernando, La Union.[38] There are also plans to move the extension terminus to San Juan, La Union and will be divided into three segments,[39] namely:

On June 11, 2013, at the Annual Stockholders Meeting of San Miguel Corporation, its Chairman, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., revealed plans of extending the expressway north to Laoag, Ilocos Norte. He said that the extension of the toll road business to Laoag has been raised during the Arroyo administration.[40]

Exits are numbered by kilometer post, with Rizal Park in Manila designated as Kilometer 0. Exits start at 124 because the SCTEX is connected with TPLEX. Thus, the last exit of SCTEX will be succeeded by an exit in TPLEX. 

Region	Province	City/Municipality	km	mi	Exit	Name	Destinations	Notes
Central Luzon	Tarlac	Tarlac City	124	77	124	Tarlac City	N58 (Santa Rosa—Tarlac Road) – Tarlac City, La Paz, Cabanatuan, Manila, Olongapo, Subic, Clark	Hybrid parclo and trumpet interchange. Road continues south as E1 (Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway). Northbound ramps being modified for a new interchange for the future CLLEX.
			126	78	Tarlac toll plaza
		Victoria	130	81		Victoria	Tarlac—Victoria Road — Victoria, Talavera, Tarlac City	Trumpet interchange.
			134	83	Petron Km. 134 (northbound)
			134	83	Petron Km. 134 (southbound)
		Gerona			No major junctions
		Pura	138	86		Pura	Gerona—Guimba Road — Gerona, Pura, Guimba, Muñoz, Cagayan Valley, Victoria	Trumpet interchange.
		Ramos	144	89		Ramos	Paniqui—Ramos Road — Paniqui, Ramos	Trumpet interchange.
		Anao	150	93		Anao	Moncada—Anao Road — Anao, Moncada, Nampicuan, Cuyapo	Trumpet interchange.
	Nueva Ecija	Nampicuan			No major junctions
		Cuyapo			No major junctions
Ilocos Region	Pangasinan	Rosales	169	105		Carmen (Rosales)	Rosales Access Road – Rosales, Santo Tomas, Villasis	Trumpet interchange. Access to N2 (MacArthur Highway) and in the future to N114 (Pangasinan–Nueva Ecija Road).
			169	105	Carmen toll plaza (demolished)
			171	106		Tomana (Rosales)	N56 (Carmen–Poblacion Rosales Road) – Rosales, Santo Tomas, Villasis	Half diamond interchange. Permanently closed after Carmen (Rosales) Exit opened.
		Rosales – Villasis boundary			Agno Viaduct
		Villasis			No major junctions
		Urdaneta	184	114		Urdaneta	N2 (MacArthur Highway) – Urdaneta, Dagupan	Trumpet interchange.
		Binalonan			No major junctions
		Laoac	189	117		Binalonan	N210 (Binalonan—Dagupan Highway) – Binalonan, Manaoag, Laoac	Trumpet interchange. Access to the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag.
		Pozorrubio	199	124		Pozorrubio	N2 (MacArthur Highway) – Pozorrubio	Trumpet interchange
		Sison	205	127		Sison	N2 (MacArthur Highway) – Sison	Trumpet interchange. Partially opened with the Sison—Rosario segment on December 15, 2019.[43][44]
					Bued Viaduct
	La Union	Rosario	210	130	Rosario toll plaza
			211	131		Rosario	N2 (MacArthur Highway) / Pugo-Rosario Road – Baguio, Rosario, Pugo, Vigan, Laoag	Roundabout interchange. Northern terminus of the expressway.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Closed/former       Incomplete access       Tolled       Unopened

The entire route is located in La Union. These are the proposed exits of the proposed TPLEX Extension to San Juan, La Union.[38] 

City/Municipality	km	mi	Exit	Name	Destinations	Notes
Rosario				Rosario	E1 (TPLEX) – Rosario, Manila	Connection with the mainline of TPLEX
Tubao				Tubao	N208 (Aspiras–Palispis Highway) – Tubao, Agoo, Pugo, Baguio
Bauang				Naguilian	N54 (Naguilian Road) – Naguilian, Burgos, Baguio
				Bauang	Bauang, San Fernando
San Juan			San Juan toll plaza
				San Juan	N2 (MacArthur Highway) – San Juan	Future northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Unopened