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Causeway Bay Traffic Congestion Solution

5K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Rachmaninov 
#1 ·
End in sight for traffic bottleneck
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, April 02, 2008

The government has proposed relocating two petrol stations and a refuse transfer station that are in front of the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay to speed up westbound traffic along busy Gloucester Road.

The proposal was disclosed during a Wan Chai District Council meeting yesterday.

The Transport Department said cars exiting the Island Eastern Corridor and heading for Happy Valley, Aberdeen or Wan Chai are currently required to pass through an intersection between Gloucester Road and Cleveland Street and join with traffic heading for Paterson Street, the petrol stations or the Excelsior Hotel and World Trade Centre.

This causes a bottleneck with traffic jams sometimes stretching well back into the corridor itself.

To improve traffic conditions, the government has proposed relocating the petrol and refuse stations to allow the widening of Victoria Park Road. Eventually, a new westbound lane will be created so that cars exiting the Island Eastern Corridor and Tsing Fung Street from Tin Hau can go directly to the lane serving Happy Valley, Aberdeen and Wan Chai.

The government estimates the lane will be used by 900 cars an hour during peak periods. It plans to commence work on removing the stations by the end of the year with completion set for 2010.

However, the government also feels that since Wan Chai and Causeway Bay are districts with dense populations, a new refuse transfer station is needed.

It plans to relocate the refuse station to an area some 30 meters away from its present site and which is currently an office for the Highways Department.

The new refuse station will occupy about 250 square meters. The current refuse station takes up 190 sq m and can process around nine tonnes of rubbish a day.

The government intends to relocate at least one of the two petrol stations but will leave planning to the Lands Department.

Wan Chai District Council member David Wong Chor-fung said all members supported the proposal to widen Victoria Park Road but had reservation about the petrol stations.

The request to broaden Victoria Park Road to ease traffic jams has been around for 10 years. However, this was prevented because the government was reluctant to terminate the leases of the petrol stations, Wong said.

The traffic jams were made worse by cars entering and leaving the petrol stations. Some members had suggested removing them but the government said there were no petrol stations in the vicinity and the nearest other station was near Times Square.

Wong said the council will wait for the governments data on the current usage of the petrol stations before making any decision.
 
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#5 ·
I wouldn't say it is a short-term solution. These improvements have a different target group than the Central-Wan Chai Bypass. The Bypass is aimed to take cross town traffic out from Gloucester Road, where this improvement is aimed to take the Canal Road Flyover traffic out from Inside Gloucester Road and Cleveland Street intersetion.

The new widening creates a new travel lane for westbound traffic coming off Island Eastern Corridor/Victoria Road going towards Canal Road Flyover. Today this traffic has to turn onto Cleveland Street after getting off IEC/Victoria Road, then right turn immediately onto the narrow Inside Gloucester Road in order to reach the on-ramp for Canal Street Flyover. The existing signal at Cleveland Street and Inside Gloucester Road is holding all this off IEC traffic causing back-up onto the expressway which is one of the causing factors for today congestion problem.

By giving this Canal Road Flyover traffic a more direct route, it reduces the traffic volume at Inside Gloucester Road and Cleveland Street intersection, elminating the back-up onto the expressway which will smooth out the flow.

Will this completely solve the congestion problem we are experience? No.
But it will certainly soften the situation by taking one of the congestion contribution factors out of the equation. I read something about the travel time will be shortened on Ming Pao Newspaper on April 1, but I don’t remember the exact numbers. But I think it is claiming the improvement will shortern the travel journey between the end of IEC to Canal Street Flyover from 15 minutes down to like 5 minutes.
 
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