Roads
Penang Island is connected to the
by the 13.5-kilometre Penang Bridge (completed in 1985), one of the longest bridges in Asia. Due to heavy traffic, the bridge was broadened into 3 lanes from two, and the project was completed in 2010. On March 31, 2006, the Malaysian government announced a second bridge project, tentatively named the Penang Second Bridge, to be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. Penang Bridge was built by Hyundai.
Penang on the side of Province Wellesley is connected to the North-South Expressway (Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan), the 966-km long expressway which traverses the western part of Peninsular Malaysia linking major cities and towns. The expressway also incorporates the Penang Bridge.
The controversial Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) is now under way. The idea of the project is to cut travelling time on the eastern part of the island. Concerned citizens voiced protests over the designated route which will cut across quiet residential areas and also cause some environmental damage. Another expressway, the Jelutong Expressway has reduced travelling time from the Penang Bridge to the city centre by half.
The Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR) is a 14-km tolled expressway that serves primarily Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam to ameliorate the upsurge in vehicular traffic due to intense urban and industrial development.
Unfortunately, modern transport has also brought the problem of traffic congestion to the roads of Penang, as most of the roads in the city centre are narrow, due to lack of proper planning and also primarily because these lanes and alleys were built so long ago. Many of them have since been converted into one-way streets in order to smoothen traffic flow. Roads in the city outskirts and in Province Wellesley, however, are broad and modern because these areas were more recently populated and thus could anticipate heavier traffic. As traffic congestion worsen by the year, the government desperately needs to come up with a comprehensive solution to the erratic public transport problem.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Penang, Intracity Transport
Famous quotes containing the word roads:
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Pioneers lay the roads for those who follow to walk on.”
—Chinese proverb.
“All roads are blocked to a philosophy which reduces everything to the word “no.” To “no” there is only one answer and that is “yes.” Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing. Man lives more by affirmation than by bread.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)