More lanes on the LDP to help ease congestion

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THE two-kilometre stretch of the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) between Persiaran Surian and the Penchala Interchange will have eight lanes with three on the far right segregated for mainline traffic heading to Kepong to ease congestion caused by traffic weaving in and out.

Lingkaran Trans Kota Sdn Bhd (Litrak) Group head of communications Shah Rizal Mohamed Fawzi said four lanes were being built on the slip road to add to the existing four.

“The first three lanes will be for mainline traffic, the next two will lead to the Penchala Link while the last three will lead to Mutiara Damansara, Kota Damansara and the new ramp that connects to the LDP leading to Kepong.

“However, only the mainline traffic will be segregated.

Adding on: Work in progress to build four more lanes on the slip road.

“The main traffic lines will also be widened by about 800m from the Penchala Interchange to the Penchala Toll Plaza to provide a fourth lane for traffic coming from the new ramp to Kepong.

“Traffic from Persiaran Surian will have to use the new ramp to Kepong due to the segregation.

“This is part of the second phase (package B) of the RM300mil upgrading work on the LDP, also known as LDP 5.

“We have completed 50% of the work and we are on target,” said Shah Rizal.

The new bridge to Kepong is scheduled to be completed in April and overall upgrading by the end of August. The RM98.6mil project is fully funded by Litrak.

“To facilitate upgrading work, 170m of one of the two-lane ramp from LDP to the Penchala Link (Sprint Highway) will be temporarily closed from Nov 23 to June 22 next year.

“As a safety precaution, we have stationed a tow truck round the clock in case of vehicle breakdown,” he said.

He also said motorists coming from Persiaran Surian had the option of connecting to the Penchala Link by turning left at PJU 7/1 and turning right into Jalan PJU 7/9 which leads straight to the Penchala Link.

Daily traffic between Bandar Utama and Kepong had more than doubled in the last 10 years, from 60,000 to 135,000 vehicles daily, due to the rapid development in the surrounding areas.

The last upgrading along this stretch was between 2006 and 2008 where RM20mil was spent to expand the Penchala toll plaza and widen the mainline northbound and southbound between the Penchala toll pLaza and LDP-FR54 junction (Sg. Buloh/Kepong intersection).