Smart Connect Interchange


The Smart Connect Interchange, also known as the Mindanao Avenue Interchange and the Harbor Link interchange, is a two-level cloverleaf interchange in Valenzuela, Metro Manila, the Philippines which serves as the junction between Circumferential Road 5 and the North Luzon Expressway. Built as part of the NLEx–Mindanao Avenue Link segment extending the expressway to Mindanao Avenue, which has since been incorporated into the C-5 system, it is the Philippines' largest cloverleaf interchange in terms of land area.

History

Construction of the NLEx–Mindanao Avenue Link, including the Smart Connect Interchange, broke ground on April 2, 2009, with actual construction work beginning on April 21, 2009.
The entire segment was opened to traffic on June 5, 2010, with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of the Manila North Tollways Corporation, the concessionaire of the North Luzon Expressway, leading the inauguration along with Public Works and Highways Secretary Victor Domingo and high-ranking officials from Valenzuela. With some 30,000 vehicles estimated to use the new road daily during its first year of operation, since its opening it has helped to relieve traffic on the older Balintawak Interchange connecting Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to the NLEx, which is three times smaller.
Although the Smart Connect Interchange was opened to traffic in 2010, it originally only carried traffic between Valenzuela and eastern Metro Manila via NLEx Mindanao Avenue Link, with the westbound ramps closed to traffic. Work on a connection between the interchange and western Metro Manila would only be realized with the construction of the NLEx Karuhatan Link, or NLEx Segment 9, between the interchange and the MacArthur Highway, which opened on March 19, 2015. A further extension to the Port of Manila, known as NLEx Segment 10, which opened on March 1, 2019.
On November 16, 2012, Smart Communications bought the naming rights to the interchange, giving it its current name.