Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Elevated expressways in Taipei

Taipei had a network of elevated expressways. They travelled along the same path as the road beneath them. The traffic moved fast on the expressways. I was never caught in a congested exprssway, even at busy hours.

I think that the road congestion in Singapore can be reduced by building elevated expressways. It will be cheaper, faster to build and less disruption to existing buldings, compared to underground expressways.

When I moved to Yio Chu Kang in 1998, I found the Central Expressway to be quite busy. I wrote to the government to suggest that a second level be build over the Central Expressway. I received a reply that this was not possible, due to difficulty of building the access roads. I did not want to pursue the matter - but I was sure that a solution could have been found.

Ten years have passed. The Central Expressway is very congested. We are still waiting for the completion of the underground Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway (which is expensive and took a long time to complete).

Perhaps, we should try the elevated expressways, which is adopted in Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and many other cities?

2 comments:

  1. i definitely agree with u and hope so but singapore (and malaysia) can't even resolve the traffic gridlock at the causeway! :-(

    http://sophiesworld-sophiesworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/causeway-blues-again-part-2.html

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  2. Think elevated highways are slowly taking shape and the underground ones.

    KPE is one.

    Keppel Road to West Coast has elevated highway.

    Upper Thomson, near MacRitche has triple level, the third level is now under construction.

    Each country has her own constraint and I believe LTA is doing their best.

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