MOTORISTS can rejoice as additional lanes have been added to Jalan Tun Razak to alleviate traffic congestion.
The upgrades started in 2020 and involved a 1.4km stretch of the connected Jalan Tun Razak and Sultan Iskandar Highway (Mahameru Highway).
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Dr. Zaliha Mustafa said the project’s completion was finally done in May after delays from the movement control order for the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We have received positive feedback on the upgrading works and traffic flow has improved," she said.
She added that a study conducted by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) last year found that a Klang Valley resident spends on average one to two hours a day in traffic congestion.
"This is equivalent to 44 hours a month or over 500 hours a year.
"With DBKL recording about 1.7 million vehicles entering Kuala Lumpur during peak hours and an average of about six million vehicles in the capital city every day, the average productivity wasted is certainly enormous," she said.
The main objective of this project is to reduce traffic congestion during peak hours from a Level of Service (LOS) Category F (forced or breakdown flow) to a LOS Category C (stable flow).
LOS is used to measure traffic flow performance on roads and intersections.
The congestion is caused by insufficient slip roads entering the main road from Jalan Tun Razak and the Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (Jalan Ipoh) slip road.
To address this, the project added a lane in both directions of Jalan Tun Razak.
It also installed barriers to guide traffic flow, widened five bridge structures at several locations such as
KTMB railway tracks, Jalan Kuching, Sungai Batu and the Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah overpass.
The project cost RM75mil and was approved in Rolling Plan 4 of the 2019 Eleventh Malaysia Plan (RP4 Year 2019 RMKe-11).
