Expressway 5 (E5) forms part of the

Philippine expressway network The Philippine expressway network, also known as the High Standard Highway Network, is a controlled-access highway network managed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which consists of all expressways and regional high standar ...

. Collectively known as the North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link Project (NLEX Harbor Link Project), it runs from

Congressional Avenue Congressional Avenue ( fil, Abenida Kongresyonal) is a highway located in Quezon City, Philippines, which spans from six lanes. It is one of the secondary roads in Metro Manila and part of it is designated as part of Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) ...

and Luzon Avenue, both components of Circumferential Road 5, in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was fou ...

Radial Road 10 Radial Road 10, more commonly referred to as R-10, is a planned network of roads and bridges that all together would form the tenth radial road of Manila in the Philippines. It is the westernmost of the radial roads north of the Pasig River runn ...

Navotas Navotas, officially the City of Navotas ( fil, Lungsod ng Navotas), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 247,543 people. It is known as the ...

, linking the

North Luzon Expressway The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), signed as E1 of the Philippine expressway network, partially as N160 of the Philippine highway network, and R-8 of the Metro Manila arterial road network, is a limited-access toll expressway that connects ...

to the

Port of Manila The Port of Manila ( fil, Pantalan ng Maynila) refers to the collective facilities and terminals that process maritime trade function in harbors in Metro Manila. Located in the Port Area and Tondo districts of Manila, Philippines facing the M ...

. Currently, its segment from

Mindanao Avenue Mindanao Avenue ( fil, Abenida Mindanao) is an eight-to-ten lane divided avenue connecting EDSA and NLEX and is a part of Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) in Metro Manila, Philippines. It is one of the three parallel roads that connects Tandang So ...

Valenzuela Valenzuela may refer to: Places * Valenzuela, Paraguay * Valenzuela, Metro Manila, Philippines * Valenzuela, Spain * Valenzuela de Calatrava, Spain * Valenzuela, Louisiana Other uses * Valenzuela (surname), including a list of people with the n ...

to Navotas is operational.

History

Construction of NLEX Segment 8.1 (Mindanao Avenue Link), the first segment of the Harbor Link project, broke ground on April 2, 2009, with actual construction work beginning on April 21, 2009. It was then opened on June 5, 2010. The spur road became part of the C-5 Road North Extension and is built to provide another entry point to the expressway from Metro Manila and decongest

Balintawak Interchange The Balintawak Interchange , also known as the Balintawak Cloverleaf, is a two-level cloverleaf interchange in Quezon City, Metro Manila, the Philippines which serves as the junction between Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) and the North Luz ...

. In 2013–2014, the construction of NLEX Segments 9 (Karuhatan Link) and 10 (Harbor Link) broke ground. On March 18, 2015, NLEX Segment 9 was opened, providing continuation to Segment 8.1 that runs from the western side of the Smart Connect Interchange to

MacArthur Highway The MacArthur Highway, officially the Manila North Road (MNR or MaNor), is a , two-to-six lane, national primary highway and tertiary highway in Luzon, Philippines, connecting Caloocan in Metro Manila to Aparri in Cagayan. It is the second l ...

in Karuhatan,

. On February 28, 2019, the main stretch of NLEX Segment 10 from MacArthur Highway to C-3 Road in

Caloocan Caloocan, officially the City of Caloocan ( fil, Lungsod ng Caloocan; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 1,661,584 people making it the fourth-most ...

was inaugurated and opened to traffic. However, this section of NLEX Segment 10 was supposed to be operational in December 2016, but was delayed repeatedly due to

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

issues and delayed ROW acquisition. On February 21, 2020, its C-3–R-10 section was partially opened up to its Malabon (Dagat-Dagatan) exit ramp. On June 15, its remaining section up to Radial Road 10 was finally opened. This section was originally expected to open in March 2020, but was delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Route description

The NLEX Harbor Link Project is the extension of the

that runs currently from

at the east to

at the west, where an access to the

is found. It aims to connect with Port of Manila, while improving cargo movement between NLEX and Radial Road 10. It is divided into four segments, namely: Segment 8.1 (Mindanao Avenue Link), 8.2 (C-5 Link / Citi Link), 9 (Karuhatan Link), and 10 (Harbor Link). It forms part of the expressway's open section. Both Segments 8.1 and 9 are components of Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) of Manila's arterial road network.

Mindanao Avenue to NLEX main

NLEX Segment 8.1 (Mindanao Avenue Link) is a four-lane, expressway that runs from the

Smart Connect Interchange The Smart Connect Interchange, also known as the Harbor Link Interchange and the Mindanao Avenue Interchange, is a two-level cloverleaf interchange in Valenzuela, Metro Manila, the Philippines which serves as the junction of North Luzon Expresswa ...

in Valenzuela. Lying on the ground level east of the interchange, it begins at the intersection with Mindanao Avenue in Barangay Ugong and then approaches the Mindanao toll plazas, widening to 6 lanes serving only westbound traffics. It terminates at the

with NLEX Main and continues to the west as Segment 9 (Karuhatan Link).

NLEX main to Karuhatan

NLEX Segment 9 (Karuhatan Link) is a four-lane, expressway that runs from Smart Connect Interchange to

in Karuhatan, Valenzuela. It is the first segment of the NLEX Harbor Link project. It begins at the

with NLEX Main, picking-up from where Segment 8.1 (Mindanao Avenue Link) left off. Lying on the ground level west of the interchange, it then traverses Barangays Gen. T. De Leon, Parada, and Maysan, where two exits towards the first two barangays, respectively, are found. It then enters Barangay Karuhatan, where it approaches the Karuhatan toll plaza, widening to 6 lanes serving only eastbound vehicles, and Segment 10 (Harbor Link) and finally terminates at

Karuhatan to Navotas

North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link Project 10

NLEX Harbor Link Caloocan (C3 Road) area(2022)-3jwilz

NLEX Segment 10 (Harbor Link), the second phase of the NLEX Harbor Link project, is a four-lane, fully elevated expressway which connects with the Karuhatan Link (Segment 9) in Valenzuela to

C-3 Road Circumferential Road 3 (C-3), informally known as the C-3 Road, is a network of roads and bridges that all together form the third beltway of Metro Manila in the Philippines. Spanning some , it connects the cities of Caloocan, Makati, Navotas, P ...

, where two ramps carry it to the west for another up to

(R-10) in

. It begins at Karuhatan Exit with Segment 9 (Karuhatan Link) and MacArthur Highway. The section near the northern terminus traverses an industrial and residential area, which necessitated the demolition of numerous houses, buildings, and warehouses. It soon follows the railway right-of-way where it rises up to as high as to provide necessary ground clearance for the viaduct carrying the future Manila–Clark Railway of the Philippine National Railways (PNR). It then crosses

Tullahan River The Tullahan River is a river in the Philippines. It is located to the north of Manila and has an approximate length of . It starts at the La Mesa Reservoir in Quezon City and flows through Caloocan, Malabon, Valenzuela. and Navotas and empties ...

, where it enters Malabon. It then enters Caloocan, where past

Samson Road Samson Road is a major east–west street in Caloocan, northern Metro Manila, Philippines. The road is a continuation of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), linked to it via the Bonifacio Monument Roundabout (Monumento) to form a single through ...

and the PNR rolling stock shops in Caloocan, it shifts east of the railway's right of way, which also necessitated the demolition of a wet market. An exit to C-3 Road could then be found before meeting the Caloocan Interchange, where the expressway veers west as the C3–R10 spur alignment with connection to the under-construction NLEX Connector (NLEX-SLEX Connector Road) that would lead southwards to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. The C3–R10 section runs above C-3 Road, where a westbound exit ramp towards Dagat-Dagatan Avenue could be found. It then crosses the Navotas River and enters Navotas, where it veers southeast towards R-10 and ends at the Navotas Interchange, which provides access to the Port of Manila via Mel Lopez Boulevard. At the Navotas Interchange, the expressway has a possible future connection to the proposed NLEX–CAVITEX Port Expressway Link or Harbor Link Port Access Mobility Facility towards

Manila–Cavite Expressway The Manila–Cavite Expressway (more popularly known as CAVITEX), signed as E3 of the Philippine expressway network and R-1 of Metro Manila's arterial road network, is a controlled-access toll expressway linking Manila to the southern pro ...

(CAVITEX) or Anda Circle, respectively.

Future

Segment 8.2 (NLEX–C-5 Link)

NLEX Segment 8.2, also named NLEX C-5 Link and NLEX Citi Link, will be an segment part of the NLEX Harbor Link Project that will connect the existing NLEX Segment 8.1 (Mindanao Avenue Link) to Katipunan Avenue, a part of C-5. It is divided into two sections: the Section 1 from Mindanao Avenue to Luzon Avenue and the Section 2 from Luzon Avenue to C.P. Garcia Avenue. The planned segment will at first run parallel to Republic Avenue before making a southward turn to Luzon Avenue after which it will then cross to Commonwealth Avenue and end at the intersection of C.P. Garcia and

Katipunan The Katipunan, officially known as the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK; en, Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation ...

Avenues. The segment will include five interchanges at Mindanao Avenue, Quirino Highway, Regalado Avenue, Congressional and Luzon Avenues, and Katipunan and C.P. Garcia Avenues, with three local road crossings at Sauyo Road, Chestnut Avenue, and Commonwealth Avenue. The project implementation has been delayed for years due to right of way issues, as it will affect informal settlers in 8 barangays of Quezon City. Construction of the expressway segment's Section 1A between

and Quirino Highway is set to commence in September 2021.

Exits

References

{{Road infrastructure in Manila Toll roads in the Philippines Roads in Metro Manila