This is approximately 7am on a typical weekday in January 2010 at
Telok Kurau Road. There is a traffic jam in the direction of Marine Parade.

It can be seen in the picture above, a car (on the right hand side) was overtaking the queue by driving in the opposide side of the road. This can be quite dangerous especially during the hours of darkness.

Telok Kurau Road is rather narrow. The vehicles are queuing up one after another. These are people going to work or sending their children to school. From Telok Kurau Road, one can get to Marine Parade Road and then onto East Coast Parkway toward the city. There are a couple of schools in East Coast and Marine Parade - St. Patrick, CHIJ Katong and Tao Nan.

Sometime the traffic jam can be quite bad. The queue can reach as far back as Lorong K and Lorong J. And all the other cars coming out from the side roads (for example: Lorong J, K, L, M and N) have difficulties too.

The Proposal

At the junction of Telok Kurau with East Coast Road, there are two lanes. One for going straight (to the direction of Marine Parade) or turning left (to the direction of Siglap). Another one for turing right (to the direction of Still Road)

It is proposed that Telok Kurau Road be widened at the junction with East Coast Road by adding a lane for turning left. So that it will ease the load on the exisiting one lane for turning left and going straight. This is especially useful when there are pedestrians crossing at East Coast Road and if the first vehicle is turing left, it got to wait and give way and hold up all the other vehicles behind.

There will be 3 lanes, one for turning left (new), one for going straight (only) and one for turning right (no change).

The red arrows in the pictures represents the proposed addition of turning left lane (to the direction of Siglap) and also the middle lane for going straight only (to the direction of Marine Parade). As there is no change to the lane for turing right (to the direction of Still Road), it is not shown in red arrow.

Telok Kurau Residents

This proposal is being submitted to the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Residents of Telok Kurau (and maybe Joo Chiat as well) are invited to add your comments in this blog. You can help by forwarding the link of this blog to your neighbours and friends staying in this area too ! The blog's URL will be included in the feedback to LTA so that the officers handling the proposal can refer to this blog and look at your comments as well.

Reply by LTA

>FEEDBACK NUMBER: 20100201-0912
>
>We would like to thank you for the effort to create a comprehensive
>feedback on the traffic situation at the junction of Telok Kurau Road
>and East Coast Road in the blog.
...
>We noted your concern on the long traffic queue and waiting time at
>the junction.
...
>We will require more time for studies and to look into the feasibility of the >proposal for additional exclusive left turning lane to East Coast Road towards >Siglap as the improvement will encroach into properties not under the
>maintanence of LTA.
...

Further suggestion to LTA

If widening the road is not an option, how about installing the type of
sensor that can detect how long the queue is along Telok Kurau and
adjust the timing of the traffic light so that it gives more time in
favour of Telok Kurau in order to clear the long queue ?