[Jaime]

Now that its open, anyone has any comment for those who have tried it?

News extracted from The Star Online.
Saturday January 10, 2009
Expressway now open to traffic
By ROYCE CHEAH

THE Klang Valley’s newest highway, the Duta-Ulu Klang Expressway (DUKE), is now open.

The 18km highway, 40% of it elevated, provides an alternative route through and out of the city as it bypasses many roads that are usually congested.

The highway is divided into three sections – Section One, from Jalan Duta to Sentul, Section Two from Sentul to Greenwood (near Batu Caves), and Section Three from Sentul to Hillview (Ulu Klang).

There will be three toll plazas at Batu, Ayer Panas and Sentul Pasar.

The seven elevated interchanges will be at Jalan Duta, Jalan Kuching, Sentul Pasar, Setiawangsa, Hillview, Bandar Dalam and Greenwood.

Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed, who offcially opened the highway, said the DUKE was the vital missing link in the current road network in the Klang Valley and would help ease traffic congestion in the inner city.

He said the DUKE took three years to construct and was built at a cost of RM892mil, with land acquisition costing about RM255mil.

“Highway users will be exempted from toll payments for one month. The highway will have an open toll system with 46% of the highway being toll-free,� he said.


Good start: Motorists cruising on the new highway.

Mohd Zin said the DUKE was expected to cater to some 120,000 vehicles a day and that toll charges would start at RM2 and would only be increased after six years.

He said the highway concessionaire had also agreed to make the agreement public and it could be viewed at the Works Ministry library from today.

Mohd Zin added that the DUKE had also undergone two safety audits, one by the concessionaire’s consultant and one by the Road Unit of the Works Department.

“The results were satisfactory considering the geometric constraints that were faced. It was also important to look into the safety in the context of the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa,� he said.

Mohd Zin also said he had submitted an interim report on the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide to the Cabinet and a full report would be submitted soon.

“Basically, what it has shown us is that it was all our creation. We did not respect mother nature,� he said.

[Jaime]

Map from http://www.mycen.com...tions/duke.html



Driving from Gombak to UK via The Duke:
The partially completed D.U.K.E. or Duta-Ulu Klang Expressway (Lebuhraya DUKE) is now accessible. The new highway spans a heavily populated and highly-congested part of Kuala Lumpur. It starts near the NKVE toll plaza at Jalan Duta and ends at Ulu Klang, near Bukit Antarabangsa. Midway, it also branches out into the Greenwood Interchange for travel to Batu Caves, Karak Highway, Genting Highlands and the East Coast Expressway.

On this journey, UK-bound road users from Karak Highway (through the opposite-facing Sentul Toll Plaza) can view the locations of the exits and entry points at Air Panas, Semarak, Setiawangsa, Jalan Enggang and at the Hillview Interchange in Ulu Klang. By connecting to the MRR2, one can also proceed to AKLEH (Ampang-KL Elevated Highway), to the KL-Seremban Highway and KESAS. For Ampang residents, it may be the quickest way to get to Petaling Jaya when the highway fully opens. For Petaling Jaya residents, it might be the easiest way to get to busy Jalan Tun Razak and the Bukit Bintang area. MyCen Video will follow up with a full edition when the currently closed stretch between Sentul and Jalan Kuching is completed.

Other useful info/link (still good as at date of posting):-
http://en.wikipedia....lang_Expressway
http://www.mycen.com...arak_to_uk.html

[maxcobmara]

Is it now open ALL the way?

[2cents]

comment? To quote Mr Patrick Teoh - niamah!
Where got open? From duta to ampang still cannot!
Some more cannot turn towards ampang from semarak / air jerneh, where there clearly have plenty of land.

[spirit36]

Who is the 3rd party auditor? is it ... BN/AAB/NTR/KJ
What says the opposition in term of safety, value for money and reliability of the highway?

Surely doesn't want another MRR2 Kepong Highway....blame it on mother nature.

[Jaime]

Is it now open ALL the way?

Nope, not fully yet.

[nozzy]

Paradise for mat rempits!! especially the Gombak karak stretch.

Not bad la da highway very fast(if u drive fast)

Not fully open yet..... ahead of schedule, sud open in April 2009 but wat to do??? wanna get money fast fast fr toll collection dy...deng blood suckers!

[aoch88]

Paradise for mat rempits!! especially the Gombak karak stretch.

Not bad la da highway very fast(if u drive fast)

Not fully open yet..... ahead of schedule, sud open in April 2009 but wat to do??? wanna get money fast fast fr toll collection dy...deng blood suckers!

Satu Lagi Projek Barisan Nasional. Your vote counts, vote wisely

[kaylcar]

[nuggyn]

Well the "much awaited" (allegedly) Duke highway opened some weeks ago, promising the missing link to Gombak and beyond, a smooth and rapid journey of 4.5 mins.......!, yeah right! Unfortunately no-one seems to have predicted the traffic flow the other way, onto the now notorious MRR2, especially in the morning peak 3 hours or so (yes, the jam is now from around 7am to 10 am!). Unbelievable how DBKL/JKR managed to design this traffic jam disaster, for now it takes me nearly 1 hour to complete a journey from my house in Bukit Antarabangsa to my son's school, a mere 4 km ! Previously, before this damn highway opened, it was 15 minutes tops. I thought these new highways were a sign of progress! How is it that they just become one long car parking lot! Now the traffic cops are out in force, though doing what, I know not. I want to blame them for the situation,... is it the cop that causes the jam or the other way around? What happened to highway engineers? Do they exist? Do they know what they are doing? What is going on as it seems that our lives just become more like hell with every leap in the progress of this developing country?

That's the problem with Msia highway builder and the authorities. No planning is bad enough, but i believe these people have NO PLANNING at all. Just build without doing any impact study.

One good example is on MRR2...look at how they design the entry and exit into Pandan Indah. Can you imagine, exit and entry at the same point!

DUKE highway...actually before it was opened, i have already predicted that this deadlock will happen. MRR2 is already so congested, and these buggers now let more traffic flow onto MRR2 by building DUKE...it's disastrous!