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