 Simpang Pulai Interchange
Simpang Pulai Interchange is a major interchange of the North-South Expressway Northern Route in Malaysia. It is also a main route to Cameron Highlands, Batu Gajah and Kellie's Castle from north.
Tapah Interchange
Tapah Interchange is a major interchange of the North-South Expressway Northern Route in Malaysia. It is also a main route to Cameron Highlands from Kuala Lumpur.
North-South Expressway
The North-South Expressway (NSE) (Malay: Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan) is the longest expressway in Malaysia with the total length of 966 km (600 miles) running from Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah near the Malaysian-Thai border (connects with the Phetkasem Highway in Thailand) to Johor Bahru at southern Malaysia. The expressway links many major cities and towns in western Peninsular Malaysia, acting as the 'backbone' of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It is also known as PLUS Expressway, after the highway's concessionaire, Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan (North South Highway Project). This expressway passes through 7 states on the peninsula: Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah. It provides a faster alternative to the old federal route 1, thus reducing travelling time between various towns and cities.
Overview
It is divided into a few main routes; E1 (northern route from Bukit Kayu Hitam to Kuala Lumpur) which also incorporates the E36 Penang Bridge, E2 (southern route from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru). The New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), part of the E1 route, starts from Bukit Raja, Klang to Jalan Duta exit in Kuala Lumpur. The North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) E6, opened in 1997, is a highway built to bypass Kuala Lumpur. It starts from the Shah Alam interchange on the NKVE E1, past Subang Jaya, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and ends at the Nilai Utara interchange on the E2. The E3 is the Second Link Expressway (Linkedua), which is connected to Malaysia-Singapore Second Link, starting at Senai Airport and ends in Tanjung Kupang before crossing. PLUS also obtained the Seremban-Port Dickson Highway, E29, which starts at Mambau in Seremban with an interchange at Lukut and ending near the town centre in Port Dickson.
E1 and E2 end in Kuala Lumpur. The E1 from the North becomes the New Klang Valley Expressway which further links into the NSE Central Link or for people travelling to Kuala Lumpur exit at the Jalan Duta Toll Plaza which links to the Sprint Expressway E23 and the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 1 (MRR1) 28. The E2 from the South ends in Sungai Besi which then changes into the E37 Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Expressway with interchanges to the Federal Highway Route 2 via Salak Expressway E37, Sungai Besi Expressway E9 and heads towards the city centre.
History
The planning of the national expressway started in the mid-1970s. In 1977, the Malaysian Department of Works received official instructions to draw plans of an expressway from the Malaysia-Thailand border (Bukit Kayu Hitam) to the Johor Causeway. In 1980, the Malaysian Highway Authority was established to monitor all the work progress of the first national expressway.
At that time, all construction works of the expressway between 1982 to 1988 was solely administered by Malaysian Highway Authority before being transferred to PLUS Expressway Berhad in 1988. As the construction works continued, segments of the highway were opened to traffic as they were finished to help fund the construction works. PLUS Expressway Berhad continued all the construction works from 1988 until completion in 1994, 15 months earlier than scheduled. The expressway was officially opened on September 8, 1994 by Malaysian prime minister at that time, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad.
Pioneer routes
The pioneer route for E1 North-South Expressway Northern Route was the Bukit Kayu Hitam - Jitra section (both in Kedah), which was initially a part of the Federal Route 1, opened in 1 April 1985.
The pioneer route for E2 North-South Expressway Southern Route was Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Expressway, opened on 16 June 1982. However, the section from Razak Mansion to Sungai Besi toll plaza was not acquired by PLUS Expressway Berhad but rather by MetaCorp - as a result, the section was not included in the southern route.
Carriageways
Generally the expressway consists of 4 lanes, 2 for each direction. There are some exceptions to this; the following are stretches with 6 lanes (3 each way):- Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Expressway, Sungai Besi to Senawang.
- New Klang Valley Expressway.
- Bukit Lanjan to Rawang.
- Juru to Sungai Dua, located at Penang.
- North-South Expressway Central Link, (Bandar Baru Nilai to Shah Alam).
- Second Link Expressway (JB Parkway to Ayer Rajah Expressway (Tuas, Singapore)).
- Section from Senawang to Ayer Keroh.
Current developments
Six-lane widing works - Recently, plans to upgrade the stretches from Slim River to Tanjung Malim, Tanjung Malim to Rawang (Northern route), Seremban to Senawang, and Senawang to Ayer Keroh (Southern route) has been approved by the government for better traffic flow. Construction is currently in progress.
Non-stop straight route works between Jelapang and Ipoh Selatan - Meanwhile, the Jelapang toll plaza and Ipoh Selatan toll plaza at Ipoh will be relocated to make way for a non-stop passage between Jelapang and Ipoh South. This measure is to avoid accidents (especially involving heavy vehicles like buses and lorries) at accident-prone areas such as Jelapang toll plaza.
Highways of PLUS- E1 and E2 (both AH 2): North-South Expressway (NSE).
- E6: North-South Expressway Central Link (NSECL/ELITE).
- E3: Second Link Expressway (MSSC/LINKEDUA).
- E29: Seremban-Port Dickson Highway (SPDH).
- E1: New Klang Valley Expressway (Part of NSE).
- 1 AH 2: Skudai Highway (until 1 March 2004 only) and Johor-Singapore Causeway.
- 2: Federal Highway Route 2 (FHR2).
Speed limit
North-South Expressway is designed as a high-speed long distance expressway therefore the default speed limit on the North-South Expressway is 110 km/h (68 mph) , but there are some exceptions in some places for several reasons, including:- Bukit Kayu Hitam-Jitra stretch : 90 km/h (expressway section with at-grade junctions) (Kedah).
- Kuala Kangsar-Jelapang stretch : 80 km/h (highland stretch with dangerous corners) (Perak).
- Gua Tempurung stretch : 90 km/h (highland stretch) (Perak).
- Bukit Lanjan exit : 80 km/h (to control traffic flow of NKVE and the main link of northern route to avoid accidents) (Selangor).
- Sungai Besi to Bangi : 90 km/h (due to high traffic capacity) (Kuala Lumpur- Selangor).
- Sungai Dua-Juru : 90 km/h (due to heavy traffic at Penang Bridge) (Penang).
Toll system
The North-South Expressway is a toll expressway with two toll systems:
Open system - Users only have to pay at certain toll plazas within the open system range for a fixed amount. "Open system" is used in the following stretches of the North-South expressway:- Batu Tiga and Sungai Rasau, (Selangor).
- Bukit Kayu Hitam, (Kedah).
- Jitra, (Kedah).
- Kempas, (Johor).
- Johor-Singapore Causeway.
- Lukut and Mambau, (Negri Sembilan).
- Tanjung Kupang, Taman Perling and Lima Kedai (Johor).
Closed system - Users collect toll tickets before entering the expressway at respective toll plazas and pay an amount of toll at the exit toll plaza plus the distance from the plaza to the Limit of Maintenance Responsibility (LMR).
Facilities along the expressway- Rest and service areas located about 60 km from each other.
- Layby parking areas located about every 2 toll plazas.
- Overhead restaurants at Ayer Keroh, Sungai Buloh and USJ.
- Emergency phones every 2 km.
- PLUSLINE hotline number.
- PLUS Ronda (PLUS patrol) service to assist drivers in the event of vehicle problems on the expressway.
- PLUS helicopter patrol unit to monitored along PLUS expressways.
General facts about the expressway- North-South Expressway is Malaysia's first long-distance expressway as well as Malaysia's longest expressway.
- Menora Tunnel, an 800 m tunnel on the North-South Expressway Northern Route near Jelapang, was once Malaysia's longest highway tunnel at the time of its construction.
- Sungai Besi toll plaza is the widest toll plaza in Malaysia with over 18 lanes (excluding additional toll booths).
- The longest bridge along the expressway is Sungai Perak Bridge (Jambatan Sultan Azlan Shah) with the length of 300 m.
- North-South Expressway is the first expressway in Malaysia that provides overhead bridge restaurants.
- The longest flyover bridge along the NSE network is Batu Tiga flyover in the North-South Expressway Central Link.
- The most expensive section of the expressway is the Gopeng-Tapah section. At RM200 million, it translate to RM 20 million per kilometre. Embankment strengthening is the major contributor for this escalating cost.
- The ELITE Speedway in USJ Layby on North-South Expressway Central Link is the first highway go-kart circuit in Malaysia.
- North-South Expressway forms 80% of Malaysian part of the Asian Highway Network, specifically Asian Highway Network 2 AH 2. The other expressways in Malaysia included in the route are Skudai Highway, Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 1 and Johor Causeway.
- The Nilai Memorial Park near Nilai Layby on North-South Expressway Southern Route is the first closed tolled expressway public memorial park in Malaysia.
- Tapah RSA (both sides) in Perak is the first rest and service area to have wireless broadband internet facilities.
- The PLUS Art Gallery in Ayer Keroh Overhead Bridge Restaurant (OBR) is the first highway art gallery in Malaysia.
- Kempas Highway (Johor State Route J3 ) is the only state route ever built by an expressway concessionaire company (PLUS Expressway Berhad).
- While more than 95% of the expressway is only accessible via interchanges, the section between Bukit Kayu Hitam and Jitra (both in Kedah) is accessible via at-grade junctions. It is due to the fact that the section itself is a part of Federal Route 1.
- By default, certain slow-moving vehicles such as bicycles, steam rollers, tractors, excavators and backhoes are not allowed to use the expressway; however, these vehicles are temporarily allowed to use the stretch between Juru and Sg. Dua (both in Penang) to enable them to use the Penang Bridge. These vehicles must exit the expressway via one of the interchanges within the stretch and use the federal roads instead to continue their travel.
List of interchanges- E36 Penang Bridge.
- E1 AH 2North-South Expressway Northern Route.
- E2 AH 2North-South Expressway Southern Route.
- E1 New Klang Valley Expressway.
- E6 North-South Expressway Central Link.
- E3 Second Link Expressway.
- E29 Seremban-Port Dickson Highway.
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