Fewer road works planned but expect worse traffic congestion

A total of 617 road works will be carried out in 2018, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced yesterday.

This number was obtained after the Road Construction Co-ordination Group of the DSAT collected reports from government departments and concessionaires on planned road engineering projects for 2018.

DSAT predicts that the city’s traffic congestion will become severe over the next year. DSAT also announced that construction in 2017 was more intense than 2016.

The total is 94 fewer projects than the 711 projects undertaken in 2017, a reduction of 13.2 percent. However, private applications have not been included in the total.

Among the projects, 42 will be related to large-scale works concerning main roads. These 42 projects will take between 60 and 1,000 days depending on their progress and level of complexity.

The main roads involved are Areia Preta, Avenida da Ponte da Amizade, Estrada do Reservatório, Avenida do Almirante Lacerda, Avenida do Conselheiro de Ferreira de Almeida, in addition to Avenida de Guimarães, Avenida dos Jogos da Ásia Oriental, Estrada de Pac On and Rotunda da Piscina Olímpica da Taipa.

Some 27 of the 42 main projects will involve the highest level of main road construction. This year, the number of main roads with works of that scale was 21. 

The scope of the works consists mainly of improving the infrastructure needed for supply of electricity, building and reorganizing the sewage network, connecting road networks on the new reclamation urban zone, replacing asbestos pipes, and building viaducts.

The construction is expected to exacerbate the traffic pressure over Macau’s global transportation network in the short term.

DSAT’s road project coordination group says that it will continue to optimize coordination and management regarding the works, to shorten the construction period and minimize the impact on residents’ lives.

The coordination group claims that, with the cooperation of related government department and concessionaires, the group can effect meaningful results in terms of controlling the number of road engineering projects, the projects’ construction areas, and the construction periods.

In 2017, 22 cases of projects which did not make sufficient progress were recorded.

Of the 711 projects announced for 2017, 478 have so far been completed, 52 are still undergoing, and 181 projects have not yet begun.

Starting from July 1, DSAT implemented a mechanism to indicate the impact of road constructions on transportation.

Based on this mechanism, 397 temporary transportation measures were issued until November 30, divided into different levels of importance, from “lightly serious” to “most serious.”

As reported by the DSAT road coordination authority, DSAT in 2017 increased its inspection of construction projects’ temporary transportation measures. Regarding some of the temporary measures which DSAT suggested lacked efficiency, the bureau will upload information about the projects’ applicants and the concessionaires to its website so that the public can learn about the involved parties. JZ