KUCHING: Driving along Mile 4 and a half to Mile 10 Kuching/Serian Road daily is a nightmare for many road users especially during peak hours. The traffic flows are at a snail’s pace as four flyovers are painstakingly taking shape at their own pace. With many complaints received since work commenced on November 1, 2016, road users are not optimistic of seeing the end of the traffic jams in the next two years as assured by the authorities concerned which expected that the flyovers would be completed by then. Despite the many complaints of traffic jams in the past few years, not much was done to minimise them.
This was because there was no co-ordination between the private sector and the agencies concerned. Project manager, Peter Pau told New Sarawak Tribune that a lot of problems stemmed from contractors who blocked the roads unnecessarily. “I am not finding fault here but I receive so many complaints daily and I hope that there will be solutions that can be worked out among the relevant authorities,” he explained.
Taking a drive during the non-peak hours twice at different hours, Pau showed that the traffic jam actually occurs the whole day. It just depends on whether it is a moving jam or a bottleneck one. Pau pointed to road blocks along both sides of the roads and the heavy machinery placed right at the centre. “This is so unnecessary. See the few people working on one end of the road block and a few miles down, the whole road is blocked even though no work is being carried out.
They should have blocked the road in stages as the blockage takes a big portion of the road,” he said. He puts it down to lack of management and poor co-ordination between contractors and the relevant agencies.
He said the road users have every right to complain as the traffic jam causes risk and cost to the people who are actually the ones paying for all these projects. Pau said the contractors just did not plan what to do first but block the whole road to make it easier for them but sadly at the expense of the public. He said in many developed countries, some works are done at night to speed up the project and to minimise traffic jam during the day but this is not the case here. “Construction time should be reduced and this, the contractors should work with JKR (Public Works Department).
There are many ways to shorten the project time like using precast building materials to reduce cooling period. Unfortunately, many contractors, not only for this project, prefer to use cheaper methods,” he said. Stating that he is not against anyone, Pau said he too received many commuters’ complaints, thus he felt that it was not too late for all parties to do something to lessen the traffic jam. After all, he said, there are two more years to go thus the road users would definitely welcome solutions put forward to have smooth traffic flows. With co-ordination and supervision by JKR enforcement, Pau believed that it will be a win-win situation for all the parties concerned.
The four flyovers are part of a road project from Sematan to Sungai Moyan which is under the Work Package 2. It is also part of the Pan Borneo Highway project. Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) engineer, Daniel Goh when contacted, said whenever a road project is being done, there will surely be traffic jams.
“As the flyovers are constructed over existing roads, traffic jams cannot be avoided,” he added. He also said that as the projects are not directly under the council, he could not say much on what the contractors and the authority concerned had done to minimise the traffic jam.
“There are sequels of work done and it may not mean that heavy machinery are put there with no intent of works being carried out,” he said. Goh said like the Mile 4 and a half, the contractor did not have the luxury of space thus they too are working under very limited space available. However, he added that it is good that there should be more lanes available to minimise the traffic jams and there was not enough markings of the routes. “By this, I mean a diversion is not properly done so road users may drive into wrong lanes and having to reverse which can cause massive traffic jams,” he said.
MPP chairman, Lo Khere Chiang said he too wished that works on the flyovers can be expedited to let everyone has a peace of mind. Lo added that there are only a few workers doing part of the work daily and he understood that the project has been delayed. He said the Pakatan Harapan government should explain to thousands of road users who are caught in traffic jams all day long. “Imagine the stress and inconvenience of waiting for the project to be completed,” he pointed out.
