The traffic situation along the Kuching – Serian road, particularly from 5th Mile to 11th Mile is expected to get much worst as there are plans to close the Mile 6 junction in Kuching for a month.
The proposed closure was announced by the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak Pan Borneo Highway Unit in a statement.
According to a news report by The Borneo Post, the closure is schedule from 15 October 2021 and it will last for four weeks.
Currently, all roads leading to the junction, which is popularly known as the Kuching Sentral junction, is already slow.
Closure and reopening dates
The closure is not for long and is temporary.
According to JKR, the temporary closure is to facilitate ongoing construction activities for the new interchange and flyover along the Kuching-Serian Road section, which is part of the massive Pan Borneo Highway project.
If you are worried that the road closure will further curtail travel time from Mile 5 to Mile 11, than you need not worry because JKR assured that the closure will only happen after the reopening of the junctions at Mile 7.
Once the Mile 6 junction is closed, it is scheduled to reopen on November 7, 2021.
There is no need to worry if you are travelling along the Kuching – Serian trunk road as JKR also assured that there would be two lanes opened to ease traffic to and from Kuching.
Faster traffic flow possible at Mile 6?
It is important to note that the closure only involves the junction and not the whole road.
This means unless you are heading to the Kuching international Airport, you are not immediately affected although traffic will likely still go much slower as the roads would be narrower.
You will however need to journey further if you live on either side of the road from the Mile 7 junction to Mile 5 as the only u-turn to get to the other side would be at the Mile 7 junction of Mile 4 overpass.
Considering the fact that the current traffic flow at Mile 6 is slow due to the junction, there is some slight anticipation that the traffic flow might become much faster as there would be no more traffic lights or junctions to disrupt traffic.
In fact, with traffic now only moving in a straight line, there is a possibility that traffic might eventually become faster if two lanes are opened on both sides of the road as planned.
Either way, if you are going through the stretch during the time of the road closure, do exercise caution as you will be entering a construction site and the road is likely to be narrow.
