A single highway to the East Coast is no longer sufficient

 A new northern and a southern route should be planned to disperse traffic away from the dangerous and congested Gombak corridor, with heavy vehicles separated from cars.

I just returned from the East Coast by road. The environment is pleasant, relaxing and calm compared to the Klang Valley. My main complaint is that successive governments have not been fair to the three East Coast states.

The East Coast Expressway, accessible only via Gombak, is the only highway linking the Klang Valley, home to almost nine million people, with Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.

This corridor has become infamous for the “Gombak crawl” – hours of daily gridlock, worse on weekends and chock-a-block during public holidays and festive seasons.

For a country aspiring to become a developed economy, depending on a single strategic highway to connect an entire region is no longer acceptable. The problem is not merely congestion. It is the result of decades of poor transport planning.

Traffic from Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan and even parts of southern Perak is collected by various roads and highways before being funnelled into a single bottleneck at Gombak and on to the East Coast Expressway.

This convergence creates predictable congestion that worsens every year as vehicle ownership, freight movement and tourism continue to grow.

No well-planned transport network should depend on a single gateway. Every major transport system requires redundancy. When there is only one principal route, any accident, landslide, vehicle breakdown or road maintenance can cripple connectivity to an entire region.

This is precisely what Malaysians experience during almost every festive season and on many public holiday weekends. In actual fact, the problem extends beyond congestion.

Unsafe highway

The Gombak-Genting Sempah section is arguably one of the country’s most hazardous stretches of highway. Its long, steep gradients place enormous strain on heavy vehicles climbing uphill, slowing traffic to a crawl and creating kilometres of queues behind them.

Descending Genting Sempah, heavy vehicles must rely heavily on both engine braking and their service brakes to control speed safely. On this steep descent, gravity and the momentum of heavily laden vehicles continually increasing their speed pose a danger to many other road users.

Brake overheating, excessive transmission strain in automatic vehicles, reduced braking efficiency, aided by the widespread use of retreaded tyres among heavy vehicles, dense three-lane traffic and driver fatigue all significantly increase the risk of catastrophic crashes.

The numerous curves, designed to moderate vehicle speeds, further increase the complexity of driving, particularly during wet weather when visibility is poor and road surfaces become slippery.

It is therefore unsurprising that accidents, many involving heavy vehicles, occur with alarming frequency along this corridor. Vehicle breakdowns are so common that many tow trucks are permanently stationed along this stretch of the highway.

As traffic continues to increase, the existing Genting Sempah tunnel is also approaching capacity. Infrastructure designed decades ago is now carrying traffic volumes that were never anticipated when it was first built and later expanded.

Instead of merely widening isolated sections of the highway, the government should adopt a long-term strategic approach.

Lower-level tunnel

One option worth studying is the construction of a new lower-level tunnel dedicated exclusively to heavy vehicles.

Such a tunnel would eliminate the steepest gradients for lorries and buses, improve speed, shorten travel times, increase fuel efficiency and significantly reduce mechanical failures caused by prolonged uphill and downhill operations.

More importantly, it would physically separate heavy vehicles from private cars along the most dangerous section of the route. Experience worldwide has shown that separating traffic with different operating speeds is one of the most effective ways to improve highway safety.

New corridors

However, engineering improvements alone will not solve the underlying problem.

The three states urgently need additional highway corridors connecting the Klang Valley with the East Coast. New northern and southern routes should be planned to disperse traffic instead of forcing every vehicle to go through Gombak.

Alternative corridors would not only reduce congestion but also improve network resilience. If one route is blocked by an accident, landslide or major maintenance works, motorists and freight operators would still have viable alternatives.

This is standard practice in countries that treat transport infrastructure as a strategic national asset rather than simply another highway project.

The economic benefits would also be substantial. Faster and more reliable connections would lower logistics costs, improve supply chain resilience, encourage investment in the East Coast and support tourism by reducing travel uncertainty.

Businesses depend on predictable travel times, not roads that can become paralysed for hours because of a single incident.

National security

There is also a national security dimension that cannot be ignored. The East Coast is home to important ports (Kuantan and Kemaman), naval bases, oil and gas facilities, energy installations, industrial developments and growing logistics hubs.

Relying on a single highway to connect these strategic assets with the nation’s economic centre represents an unnecessary vulnerability.

Toll review needed

The current toll structure should also be reviewed. Since motorists have virtually no practical alternative route, toll charges must be reconsidered and revised downwards with urgency.

A strategic national highway serving millions of Malaysians should not be turned into a monopolistic toll collection business, where users are left with no practical choice.

The Gombak bottleneck is no longer just a holiday inconvenience. It is a warning that Malaysia’s transport infrastructure has failed to keep pace with economic growth, population expansion and increasing freight demand.

Long-term planning

If the government is serious about improving road safety, strengthening national logistics and supporting balanced regional development, planning and constructing additional East Coast corridors can no longer be postponed.

The cost of inaction will continue to be measured not only in lost productivity and wasted fuel, but also in lives lost on one of the nation’s busiest and most dangerous highways.

Malaysia has reached a stage where transport infrastructure must be planned decades ahead rather than reacting only after congestion becomes unbearable or tragedies occur.

Building additional East Coast corridors is not simply about making holiday journeys more convenient. It is about creating a safer, more resilient and economically competitive nation with transport networks that are fit for future generations. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.