Fourth lane for sections of North-South Expressway
A view of the North-South Expressway near Ayer Keroh, Malacca. Certain sections of the expressway will be expanded to include a fourth lane. — Picture courtesy of WikipediaTAMPIN, Sept 1 — The government has approved the addition of a fourth lane to the North-South Expressway from the Shah Alam to Rawang junctions, Bukit Lanjan to Jalan Duta and Nilai Utara to Seremban, in both directions.
Works Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said the move was taken following increased traffic on the expressway.
“On a normal day, 1.2 million vehicles ply the North-South Expressway while on weekends it’s 1.4 million, which spike to 1.6 million vehicles during festive seasons. Whereas traffic in the east coast is only 33,000 vehicles on normal days and 175,000 during festive seasons,” he told reporters after his Aidilfitri open house here today.
Shaziman, who is also Tampin MP, said the project consisted of four packages, which were the 16.1km from the Shah Alam junction to Sungai Buloh, Bukit Lanjan to Jalan Duta toll plaza (7km), Sungai Buloh to Rawang junction (13.1km) and Nilai Utara to Seremban (27km).
He said initial preparations for the construction of the fourth lane from Shah Alam to Rawang and Bukit Lanjan to Jalan Duta were almost complete and work would start soon.
“Construction costs will be borne by Projek Lebuh Raya Utara-Selatan (PLUS) and the project is expected to be ready by early 2015,” he said.
Shaziman said he has also asked PLUS to identify new locations on the highway for additional rest and recreation (R&R) areas to meet the increasing demand of motorists.
“If we don’t have more R&R areas, the existing ones will be congested. I have asked PLUS to identify new R&R areas and at the same time upgrade existing ones in terms of parking space. There is also a big distance between one R&R to another, so PLUS needs to look into this, he added. — Bernama
