KenaSaman.com

Major changes are being made to ease the bottleneck along a 2.8km stretch of the Middle Ring Road 2 from Pandan Indah to Kampung Pandan Dalam under the RM104mil project.

Public Works Department (JKR) construction general manager Md Ridzwan C. Chik said the project involved widening the bottleneck to three lanes in both directions.

“We will be widening the stretch between the Pandan Indah and Pandan Jaya interchanges,” he said.

He added that they also aimed to create free traffic flow along the stretch by removing the traffic light junctions.

“The traffic lights are causing long queues that contribute to congestion. We have decided to remove them and introduce a new traffic flow system,” Ridzwan said.

The system includes a major change at the Pandan Indah and Pandan Jaya interchanges.

“Traffic from Pandan Indah and Taman Shamelin Perkasa will not be able to turn right on the bridge once the project is completed.

“Motorists can only go straight across or turn left,” he said, adding that the system is expected to start at the end of the year.

The free-flow traffic concept has already been implemented under the MRR2 where the Pandan Jaya interchange is located.

“Those from Jalan Cempaka can use a dedicated ramp to go onto Cheras-bound MRR2 as usual or head across to Pandan Jaya without waiting at the traffic lights.

“Those from Pandan Jaya, however, can only turn left to go onto the Hulu Kelang-bound MRR2,” Ridzwan said.

JKR has also upgraded the existing U-turn in Kampung Pandan Dalam after Tesco Ampang and is creating an elevated one just after the second Pandan Indah junction.

“These two U-turns are two-lane roads. One is already in use while the elevated one will be completed and opened by November,” Ridzwan said.

He also highlighted a common problem of motorists cutting in and out of the MRR2 at the interchanges, causing traffic to slow down.

“We will do away with this. Those from Taman Shamelin Perkasa and Jalan Cempaka going onto the MRR2 will not need to worry about traffic cutting into their lanes to get onto the slip roads anymore,” he said.

As for those travelling on the Cheras-bound MRR2 and turning onto Jalan Cempaka, they will get to use the new lane that is being built over the monsoon drain.

Ridzwan said the project was expected to be completed in February.

“However, we believe the project may be completed earlier than expected. Now, about 200,000 motorists use the MRR2 daily,” he said.

He added that they would also be repainting the existing bridges and carrying out landscaping work along the project stretch.

He also said one of the reasons why they were able to progress so quickly since the project started in mid-2010 was due to cooperation from the local council, utility companies and Prasarana whose LRT line goes under the MRR2 at one point.

He said they received many complaints when they implemented the free-flow system at the Pandan Jaya interchange.

“I believe this was mostly because people were not used to the new system and got frustrated.

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