KUALA LUMPUR: The development of elevated highways and the use of smart technology are among the key approaches adopted by the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) to address worsening traffic congestion, particularly in urban areas.
LLM Director-General Datuk Mohd Hadzmir Yusoff said the need to develop new highways and adopt such technologies is evident following the increase in the number of vehicles and highway usage, which has now reached between 5.5 million and six million vehicles daily.
"Under the Madani Government, we are committed to developing the toll highway network in Malaysia because the need is clearly there, especially as many areas and cities are now facing traffic congestion.
"At the same time, we are also seeing a fairly high increase in traffic volume. For your information, based on daily monitoring, more than 5.5 million to six million vehicles use our highways every day,” he said.
He said this when appearing as a guest on Bernama TV’s Ruang Bicara programme titled "Needs and Challenges of Urban Highway Construction” last night. Also appearing on the programme was IJM Corporation Bhd Toll Division chief executive officer Chua Lay Hoon.
Mohd Hadzmir said LLM is also placing emphasis on the continuity of highway network development while ensuring every project complies with the stipulated technical and safety standards from the planning stage through to operations.
On the New Pantai Expressway 2 (NPE2) extension project, he said their observation showed that more than 200,000 vehicles use the NPE daily and the highway’s current capacity is no longer sufficient to accommodate the growing demand.
"With the existing three lanes, the capacity is insufficient and the level of service is at Level E, which is quite congested. Therefore, we will add two more elevated lanes, bringing the total to five lanes,” he said.
He said the main challenges in urban highway construction are land constraints, high acquisition costs and underground utilities, and as such, non-conventional design approaches and the Industrialised Building System (IBS) method are being used to reduce disruption.
"At construction sites, we will install Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras to monitor works live and enable immediate action to be taken should any incident occur. With the use of this technology, we can enhance safety throughout the construction period,” he said.
In addition, Mohd Hadzmir said LLM is also moving towards the development of smart highways through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect accidents and traffic violations.
Meanwhile, Chua said the NPE2 extension project is important to accommodate increasing traffic volume and support urban development.
"This project will provide an alternative route for highway users travelling across southern Kuala Lumpur and offer smoother access to the city centre,” she said.
She said the project is expected to divert about 40 per cent of traffic from entering the city centre via Jalan Bangsar and reduce travel time by up to 20 minutes.
According to her, the RM1.7bil project is being implemented through a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) privatisation model without involving government allocation.
"The project will also be equipped with smart highway technology, including an integrated traffic monitoring system, smart cameras and support facilities such as rest areas and electric vehicle charging stations," she added. - Bernama
