Nightmare drive along Jln Segambut

Bumper-to-bumper: Residents have to put up with the daily crawl, especially during peak hours.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (By JAYAGANDI JAYARAJ, 21/1/2010)

Residents still in the dark over upgrade plan for single-lane road

MADDENING traffic congestion along Jalan Segambut in Kuala Lumpur is making many motorists upset, especially during the morning and evening peak hours. Residents say they have to get up very early in the morning and leave home by 6am just to beat the jams. If they leave any later, they would be stuck in a bumper-to-bumper crawl. Motorist Lim Ching Yang, 46, said there were times when it took him up to an hour just to move 100m along the road. The businessman from Taman Bukit Maluri said he woke up early each day to send his two children to school in Jalan Ipoh and he has to leave his house before 6.15am. “Otherwise, I would be stuck and my children will be late for school, which starts at 7.30am,” Lim said, adding that he was wondering why the plan to upgrade and widen Jalan Segambut had not materialised. Lim was among those present at a meeting with representatives from Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) engineering department and Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng.

A DBKL representative said the road upgrading project under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) would include full-scale work from the beginning of Jalan Segambut, starting from Jalan Kuching all the way to Mont Kiara. The 4km-long roadworks will be split into two phases and the first phase of 1.4km will cover the most crucial part of Jalan Segambut. The project will transform the current single lane road into a dual carriageway. There will also be a flyover intersection at Jalan Segambut and the SPPK junction. The work on both phases is estimated to cost RM95mil, while another RM65mil is expected to be used for land acquisition. The representative said 104 lots of houses and factories would be affected by the project along the road. “We have completed the land acquisition exercise for the 1.4km at the moment but I can’t comment on when we will be starting the project. “However, it will take about 24 months to complete work on the 1.4km,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lim asked DBKL to offer a temporary solution by widening the one-lane road around the junction of Jalan Segambut and Jalan Jambu Mawar (at the Esso station) to ease traffic at the area. “Motorists find that this area is a bottleneck because traffic comes from a few roads and merges into this single lane road at the traffic light,” Lim said.