 
Sri Petaling Residents Association (SPRA) members and Zone N KL-Putrajaya Highway Committee Members met up with representatives from Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia and the KL-Putrajaya Highway concessionaire - Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd to understand the final design and construction of the Sri Petaling interchange. The meeting lasted about 3 hours.
We were briefed on the entire layout of the interchange and the construction method among other information. According to them, the entire project would complete in 2007. SPRA raised the issues on the safety measures and was informed that they are in the process of designing a new 2-meter parapet wall. The wall shall be higher as compared to the previous design as the Minister of Works has instructed them to do so. They have also highlighted that the original design was not designed to have such high walls and may impact the stability of the structure due to the extra weight. SPRA also asked about raising the height of the highway as promised by the Minister of Works. According to them, the design of the highway has been fixed and therefore it is impossible to raise the height of the highway due to design limitations.
The health and safety promises made by the Minister of Works has been empty promises so far until we see some real initiatives. So far the only encouraging promise is to beautify the place by means of landscaping once the highway has been completed.
We also had the opportunity to review the details of the interchange. We found the following shortcomings
1. There is no exit for traffic travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Kesas Highway headed towards Klang direction. All traffic will have to make a U-Turn at Endah Parade interchange, which will in the end cause massive traffic congestion as the current interchange is not free flow
2. One of the exit ramp turning down to Kesas Highway headed towards Cheras is going to be very close (approx 2 meters) to houses at Jalan 1/149D
3. There is no apparent benefit to Sri Petaling residents as it will be very inconvenient for a resident to use the interchange. The only logical way to get on the highway is via the Kuchai Lama interchange which will be connected to the current Jalan 1/149 service road. This will also cause increase in traffic load as the density of vehicles increases raising issue of the pollution of air and noise for the houses nearby.
The concessionaire also shared with SPRA the plans to divert all the necessary traffic during the 'launching' of the massive concrete beams. We reiterated the need to put in safety measures so as not to cause any accidents.
The concessionaires agreed to provide us a copy of all the plans so that we can share the layout with our residents during our briefing to them.
Reported by
Joe Seah
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