13/08/2026
Wow ambilis na ☺️🙏
For years, driving to Quezon Province and the Bicol region has been a exercise in patience. While the distance itself is manageable, choking congestion—particularly the infamous crawl from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Tiaong, Quezon along Maharlika Highway—has long turned routine road trips into tedious ordeals.
That long-standing bottleneck, however, is finally on the brink of relief.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the South Luzon Expressway Toll Road 4 (SLEX TR4) is on track to partially open by December, dramatically slashing travel times for thousands of motorists.
Transportation Secretary Giovanni “Banoy” Lopez confirmed that the government is pushing for a formal inauguration in November, setting the stage for operations to commence the following month.
Major Travel Time Reductions
The opening of the new expressway promises to transform connectivity between Southern Luzon’s major trade and transit corridors:
Sto. Tomas to Tiaong: Reduced from ~2 hours to just 30 minutes.
Sto. Tomas to Lucena City: Expected to drop from ~4 hours to 1 hour upon full completion.
Target Volume: An estimated 17,000 motorists daily are expected to benefit from the new alignment, pulling significant traffic density off local arteries.
Decades in the Making
The SLEX TR4 expansion is one of the region's most delayed infrastructure developments. While former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III noted in 2015 that initial concepts trace all the way back to the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., formal approval wasn't secured until the Ramos administration. Construction ground finally broke decades later in 2019.
Though originally slated for a 2022 rollout, persistent right-of-way acquisition challenges and operational delays repeatedly pushed back delivery dates.
Once fully finished, the 66.74-kilometer toll road will seamlessly link Sto. Tomas, Batangas directly to Lucena City, Quezon, bypassing congested urban centers along the existing route.
