Braddell-Lornie flyover on the cards, says
LTA
It's to ease possible congestion near Mount Alvernia Hospital when
Braddell-Bishan flyover opens fully
FIRST, the part of Braddell Road where it meets the Central
Expressway (CTE) was turned into an underpass to ease the jam
there.
Farther down, where Braddell Road meets Bishan Road, work is
ongoing on a flyover to bypass this bottleneck.
The CTE-bound lanes of this flyover opened last Saturday.
But when the flyover is fully open next year, Braddell Road traffic
may pile up near Mount Alvernia Hospital and also near MacRitchie
Reservoir.
So, another flyover linking Braddell Road to Lornie Road over these
two junctions is possible, says the Land Transport Authority
(LTA).
It's on the drawing board, said LTA's director of engineering, Mr
Lim Bok Ngam, and the tender could be called next year.
He disclosed this to The Straits Times in the course of discussing
two other road improvement projects, both completed, that some have
considered questionable.
One is the 'underused' Upper Serangoon viaduct between Upper
Aljunied Road and Yio Chu Kang Road, which was opened in February
last year.
It carries about 1,400 vehicles an hour towards Hougang during the
evening peak period. That is likely to rise when more homes are
developed in the north-east region, Mr Lim said.
Why did they not wait till then? Because doing it will be
technically tougher and more costly.
Instead, they chose to build it at around the same time as the
North-East Line tunnel which runs directly underneath. The viaduct
passes over the Braddell-Bartley underpass at Upper Serangoon
Road.
Some motorists have also complained that when the underpass and a
flyover linking Upper Bukit Timah Road to Clementi Road opened in
March this year, traffic along Jalan Anak Bukit was still bad for
months.
Mr Benny Tan, 40, said that though he does not use the Pan-Island
Expressway (PIE), he still has to contend with all the traffic
taking the slip road leading off Jalan Anak Bukit and linking to
the PIE.
Just getting through this sometimes takes him 10 minutes, he
said.
The slip road was widened only late last month.
The LTA said that traffic flow did improve after the flyover and
underpass opened, just not enough.
But why couldn't LTA engineers pre-empt the problem?
They had studied computer predictions of the traffic flow after the
changes, but drivers can behave unpredictably, Mr Lim said.
'It takes a few months to reach equilibrium,' he explained, as some
motorists will try out the route for novelty's sake.
No matter how the LTA improves the road system, motorists will
still have to put up with 'slight traffic congestion', Mr Lim
said.
The LTA spends between $200 million and $300 million a year on road
developments, and Mr Lim expects this level of spending to be
maintained for the next five to 10 years.
'In the future, getting money to build roads will be a challenge,'
he said, because road projects now bring 'incremental and not
obvious' improvements compared to decades ago when the network was
not as developed.
He added: 'While people aspire to own cars, the challenge is to
encourage them to try not to drive during peak hours.'
extracted
from STI