North Luzon Expressway

February 09, 2011
The North Luzon Expressway (NLE or NLEx), formerly called North Diversion Road, is a limited-access toll expressway that connects Metro Manila to the provinces of the Central Luzon region in the Philippines. It is one of the two branches of the R-8 major radial road of Metro Manila (Quirino Highway is the other).
The expressway begins in Quezon City at a cloverleaf interchange with EDSA: a logical continuation of Andres Bonifacio Avenue. It then passes through Quezon City, Caloocan City, and Valenzuela City in Metro Manila. Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Plaridel, and Pulilan in Bulacan. San Simon, San Fernando City, Mexico and Angeles City in Pampanga. The expressway currently ends at Mabalacat and merges with the MacArthur Highway, which continues northward into the rest of Central and Northern Luzon.
A planned spur route from the San Simon interchange connecting to the existing Subic-Tipo Highway has been temporarily postponed, because the Spur/NLE exit currently serves as the connection between the expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and there is a proposed direct interchange between the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, the latter serving as a direct link between Subic and Clark. The interchange is located at least 3 km north of Sta. Ines Exit.
The expressway, including Andres Bonifacio Avenue, has total length of 88 kilometers. The expressway segment has a length of 84 kilometres. It is currently being extended by 44 kilometers, starting from its current end in Mabalacat, Pampanga up to Tarlac City in Tarlac. Its extension is part of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project. It will be extended up to San Fernando City, near Poro Point Port in La Union. The extension starts (in the future) at the terminus of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway in La Paz, then passes through Gerona, Paniqui, Anao, Moncada, and San Manuel in Tarlac, Carmen, Villasis, Urdaneta City, Binalonan, Pozzorubio, and Sison in Pangasinan, Rosario, Santo Tomas, Agoo, Aringay, Caba, Bauang, and San Fernando City in La Union. It will be called the Tarlac-La Union Expressway.
Originally controlled by the Philippine National Construction Corporation or PNCC, operation and maintenance of the NLEx was transferred in 2005 to the Manila North Tollways Corporation, a subsidiary of the Lopez Group of Companies. A major upgrade and rehabilitation has been completed in February 2005 and the road has now similar qualities as a modern French tollway. The main contractor of the rehabilitation work was Leighton Contractors Pty. Ltd (Australia) with Egis Projects, a company belonging to the French Groupe Egis as the main subcontractor for the toll, telecommunication and traffic management systems. To help maintain the safety and quality of the expressway, various rules are in effect, such as restricting the left lane to passing vehicles only and banning overloaded trucks.
The tollway has two sections: an open section and a closed section. The open section (within Metro Manila) charges a flat toll based on vehicle class and is employed to reduce the number of toll barriers (and associated bottlenecks) within the metropolis. The closed section is distance-based, charging based on the class of vehicle and distance traveled. Class 1 vehicles can use an electronic toll collection system (called EC Tag) to reduce wait times and congestion at toll barriers. A prepaid magnetic card (the NLE Badge) is provided as an alternative payment for class 2 and 3 vehicles. Both systems connect to accounts that can be replenished in various ways. Travelers not using EC Tag or the NLE Badge on the closed system will instead be issued tickets describing tolls for the various exits. In order to save costs concerning toll barriers at exits, many exits on the NLEx are parclo interchanges, having exit and entrance ramps running alongside each other so that both may be serviced with a single toll barrier.

Source: http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/North_Luzon_Expressway