By TAN KARR WEI | Feb 1, 2010
Traffic nightmare continues: BU11 and BU12 residents stuck in a jam during peak hours
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All backed up: The jam in the mornings and evenings can stretch as far back as the Kampung Chempaka intersection.
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karrwei@thestar.com.my
The school term recently started and, since then, residents of BU11 and BU12 in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, have been facing a traffic nightmare in Lebuh Bandar Utama.
The controversial Jalan Tanjung in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, was reopened to traffic in December, and traffic was still under control because the school holidays were still on.
However, when school reopened, more cars were plying the road and this has caused traffic congestion every morning and evening.
Most of the cars came from the direction of Persiaran Surian and beyond, sometimes backed-up all the way to the Kampung Chempaka junction.
A group of residents from BU11 and BU12 agreed to speak on condition of anonymity regarding their predicament because they did not agree with the Bandar Utama Residents Association’s (BURA) stand of keeping Jalan Tanjung closed.
During the controversy that followed since the road was closed in November 2009, BURA had supported the closure and maintained that the additional traffic from Tropicana and Kota Damansara only added to the traffic problems faced by Bandar Utama.
BU11 residents said they sometimes had to wait for at least 20 minutes in Lebuh Bandar Utama just to get home.
When traffic is bad, BU12 residents even have difficulty trying to get out of their area and turning right onto Lebuh Bandar Utama.
When contacted, BURA chairman Datuk Manpal Singh said that they stood by their stand that a traffic study should be done before the road could be re-opened.
“For now, the solution proposed is a lot of guesswork. They want to open the road and widen it without knowing the effect it will have on the Lebuh Bandar Utama bridge,” he said.
He said there was a back-up of traffic in BU11 and BU12 because now that Jalan Tanjung was opened to traffic coming from Tropicana and Kota Damansara, there was less green time for traffic going straight towards Bandar Utama and turning right onto the Sprint highway.
He added that with more cars trying to get onto the Sprint highway, the junction was jammed so cars needed to wait longer to turn right.
“When Jalan Tanjung was closed to traffic, cars were free to go straight, so there was no congestion,” said Manpal.
He said the traffic study was crucial to find out alternative ways to clear the long queue of cars on the Sprint highway and also to find a direct access for cars coming from Tropicana, Kota Damansara and Sungai Buloh going onto the highway instead of using the Lebuh Bandar Utama intersection.
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