JOHOR BARU: In a bid to reduce congestion here, the Johor government will be building a new connection from Jalan Stulang Darat to the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL).
State works, transportation and infrastructure committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said this was part of a short-term solution to reduce congestion in Johor Baru city centre and areas around it.
“The EDL will be upgraded to better cope with the increasing volume of vehicles, but it will take between two and three years for the upgrades to be completed.
“In the meantime, we have to come up with a solution to address congestion on the EDL, which is also being used by those traveling to Singapore.
“The new connection will allow motorists to enter directly from Jalan Stulang Darat and help reduce some of the congestion around the area,” he said.
Mohamad Fazli added that the connection will be open during peak hours and manned by traffic police.
“We are currently in the tender process and we expect construction to begin as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the new connection is expected to be completed by November.
The Star had previously reported that congestion in Johor Baru had worsened, especially in the city centre, with roads such as Jalan Stulang Laut and Jalan Tebrau being clogged by traffic going to and from the Causeway.
Crawls in the city are also caused by the construction of the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link.
On a separate matter, Mohamad Fazli said congestion at the Pasir Gudang highway was due to several upgrading projects around the Pasir Gudang and Permas Jaya areas.
“There are about 23 projects to upgrade and fix the highway and of that number only 11 are left. We expect all of them to be completed by the middle of next month,” he said.
