Lee (second left) being briefed on the traffic flow.
KUCHING: The Transport Ministry’s Special Traffic Task Force has recommended five interim and long-term measures to overcome the traffic congestion along Kuching Ranger Depot-Sungai Tapang-Kuching Sentral roads here.
The first would be to station traffic wardens or traffic police during the peak hours to control and manage motorists at the T-junction of Kuching Ranger Depot Road and Kuching Airport Road and to allow vehicles exiting Kuching Ranger Depot Road until the completion of the proposed slip road, said Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin in a press statement yesterday.
The traffic police should begin stationing their men there on Dec 14 to regulate and ease the flow of traffic especially for those making U-turns at the junction of Kuching-Penrissen Road and Airport Road, he added.
The second recommendation would be to convert one of the four lanes from Serian to Kuching at the Kuching Airport Junction as a temporary road, protected by concrete barriers, to ensure uninterrupted traffic flow from Serian to Kuching.
The third would be to construct a ‘slip road’ bypassing the main road to facilitate smoother traffic flow from Serian to Kuching via Mile 4.
Fourthly, to construct a link road from Sungai Tapang to the new approved road at Samarahan (the new inner ring road) – namely the alignment from Taman Bukit Berangan at Jalan Datuk Mohammed Musa (road to southern side of Kuching International Airport).
This proposal would greatly reduce the traffic volume as people could travel from this location to the city, said Lee.
With the construction of this road, it is anticipated that traffic would disperse as those living on the Samarahan side would use the most convenient route (new inner ring road) without having to make the journey to Kuching via the airport, he said.
Tender for this project would be called next year and the funding for this project was already available from the federal side, he added.
The fifth recommendation would be to re-design Kuching Ranger Depot Road as a T-Junction and install smart traffic lights to regulate traffic flow.
A detailed study would be required to conduct traffic count and investigate the existing utilities on the affected alignment, he said.
“The present state of traffic flow at the junction of Kuching-Penrissen Road and Airport Road gets worse due to the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway. This is especially so with the construction of four flyovers from Mile 4 to 10 along the Kuching-Penrissen Road,” he added.
Certain stretches of roads are closed for works, with lanes merging – a situation that had created ‘chaotic traffic flow’, said Lee.
“The carriageway becomes congested and the traffic flow from the arterial roads becomes badly affected. One of the areas badly affected by this is Airport Road (opposite Kuching Sentral),” said Lee.
“People have been complaining about this as many motorists are avoiding the main Penrissen Road due to the construction of flyovers at Mile 8 and Mile 6; resorting to using Sungai Tapang leading to the Kuching Ranger Depot Road as the ‘rat run’ or shortcut to the city via Airport Road,” he said.
Arising from these public complaints and feedback, the ministry had taken the initiative to call for a meeting this month involving all the relevant agencies to discuss the issues and solutions.
Agencies invited to the meetings are the Ministry of Infrastructure and Port Development; Public Works Department (JKR) – Pan Borneo Project Unit; JKR Kuching Divisional Engineer, Ministry of Local Government and Housing; Land and Survey Department; Kuching South City Council (MBKS); Padawan Municipal Council, Royal Malaysia Police, Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Kuching Water Board.
“It was agreed in the meeting to establish a special traffic task force on Sungai Tapang-Kuching Sentral, headed by a Traffic management team from the state Ministry of Transport, to deliberate the problem including carrying out a site visit and to propose recommendations both short term and long term measures to resolve the traffic congestion in the area.”
The Special Traffic Task Force convened at the site on Dec 7 and concluded that a U-turn along Airport Road less than 100m from the egress of Kuching Ranger Depot Road was not feasible due to the design speed of Airport Road that did not allow for deceleration as the traffic travelled towards Kuching Sentral, Lee said.
He said Kuching City was rapidly expanding and the development was sprawling – meaning that many people are now living in the suburb.
With such vibrant growth, the number of registered private cars in Kuching and its conurbation showed significant increase from 73,941 in 1990, to 283,579 in 2010.
It is estimated that there are 350,000 private cars this year in Kuching and its conurbation.
Traffic problem was beginning to be felt in Kuching in 1990 because of its visibility and affects virtually all inhabitants.
Decentralisation had created longer travel distance from home to the workplaces – resulting from the dispersal between home (origin) and workplaces, as well as other purposes (destinations).
“Being a car-dependent city, most people in Kuching drive daily into the city to work and at the end of the day drive out of the city to go home. The daily phenomenon creates traffic congestion especially at peak and medium peak hours,” said Lee.
Yesterday, together with all the task force members and contractor, an official site visit was made to examine the traffic condition on the ground.
They were joined by Kuching South mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng.
A short visit was also made to all the bus operator booths at Kuching Sentral to listen to bus operators on bus services and the response of the people on the RM1 flat rate stage bus fare.
“I wish to emphasise here that some of the measures are short term and some are long term in nature. But for these solutions to work, full cooperation is needed from all parties especially motorists who travel on these roads. We would like to have them to obey traffic signs and follow the direction of traffic enforcers or the traffic police.
“Equally important is that road users must adhere to the traffic rules and regulations to ensure the safety of all road users, and to avoid accidents,” stressed Lee.
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