Project blues at the LDP - Damansara Puchong Highway

PETALING Jaya residents and motorists feel that all new developments along the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) must have a good traffic dispersal system to minimise impact on the already congested highway.

They have been concerns about the traffic impact of many new developments in the area, and the matter was frequently raised at public objection hearings conducted by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

Litrak communications head Bhavani Krishna Iyer said the people were not against development but the rate and size of developments along the LDP was of concern to the highway concessionaire.

Familiar scene: The cars are always in a bumper-to-bumper crawl at LDP after the Sunway toll.

“When the LDP was first built, Petaling Jaya was already a very much a developed area. What we see now is development beyond its capacity,” she said.

Currently, thousands of vehicles pass through the LDP between Bandar Sunway and Bandar Utama each day.

According to Bhavani, the project at the corner of the LDP and the Federal Highway will result in a heavy volume of traffic at the critical junction just before the cable bridge.

“The development is a very high density one and, in terms of car parks, there are more than 4,000 bays. So, that is the kind of traffic we can expect,” she said.

“There are direct access and exits to the project in the preliminary studies but it would only address traffic from the Petaling Jaya direction. There would also be cars coming from Kuala Lumpur and Sunway and it would have an impact on the Jalan Majlis interchanges because people will use it to get to the site,” Bhavani said.

Cars travelling from the project vicinity and headed towards Shah Alam would need to make a right turn under the cable bridge.

Cars heading back towards Petaling Jaya would have to use the back roads and this would eventually clog up the internal roads.

»There is a need to have a major traffic study and look at alternative dispersal points«BHAVANI KRISHNA IYER

Bhavani pointed out that the free trade zone (FTZ) generated very little traffic compared with a commercial development, yet the congestion had been bad.

“Even a medium-scale development would make things worse,” she said.

The applications for an access road onto the LDP was decided by the highway authorities after discussions with Litrak.

Bhavani said another project in Petaling Jaya, now under construction, had plans to upgrade the traffic facilities around its development site to improve the current traffic flow and the traffic from the site.

Another problematic junction along the LDP is the one leading in to and out of Taman MegahMas.

“That’s also a concern to us because traffic from any development there would be channelled to that junction of the LDP.

“It is either that or you go back to the tunnels. There is a need to have a major traffic study and look at alternative dispersal points,” Bhavani said.

The stretch near the former Kelana Seafood Centre is also quite critical.

“There is a very weak link between Kelana Jaya and the Dataran Prima and the only way is through the LDP along a small junction near the church.

“They need to find a way for traffic to get around their local roads without getting on the highway,” Bhavani said.

She said the traffic dispersal scheme from each new development must take into consideration where the traffic was going to end up at, so that the LDP would not be choked with traffic.

Source: The Star 29 April 2009