The Next Expressways
Planned expressways and highways, via the RDA.
The Colombo Southern Expressway opened to much fanfare and one accident. It’s still a great thing. To quote a tweet from Hajara: “It took just 55 minutes from Galle to Kottawa.. And I am supposed to believe this is #LKA. I love #E01 =]” What you may not know is that highways are being planned from Jaffna, Kandy, Katunayake, and a ring road around Colombo. Soon much more of the country will be an hour or two away.
The Current System
The basic problem now is that local and national traffic uses the same road. The Galle Road can take you to Pizza Hut, or Galle. On the Galle Road I have A) parked B) done U-Turns C) gone 100 kph D) walked E) eaten roti and F) been stumbling drunk. None of this stuff should be done on the same road. Sri Lankan roads are both highways and byways, which is a bad combination.
The Fix
The fix is making the current roads the ‘old’ roads, where local and some national traffic can pass, and making new highways purely for national traffic. These new highways won’t have trishaws, motorbikes, bullock carts or tractors. It’ll just be cars and trucks and buses. This type of separation is good for everyone involved.
The Next
Traditionally, road construction is an almost generational affair. Indeed, these current plans date back decades and are almost apolitical. The difference is that the Rajapaksa government is actually getting them done (late and overbudget), but done. What’s next?
- Colombo – Katunayake Expressway (25km)
- Southern Expressway (126km)
- Outer Circular Highway (28km)
- Colombo – Kandy Highway (98km)
- Katunayake – Padeniya – Anuradhapura (153.3km) Highway
Most interesting to me is the circular road around Colombo and the connections to the airport. The road around Colombo will mean that, say, Galle to Anuradhapura traffic won’t need to go through traffic, again separating the local and national. It will also boost property values and business in new areas not in the city center, but still accesibly. The North Central district (Anuradhapura) is one of the fastest growing in the country, and they should soon have a direct link to the airport. In addition, while Jaffna is happy to have the A9 open, it’s still like 10 hours to get up there. A proper highway (and the Yal Devi rail line being reconstructed) can help Jaffna reclaim its place as Sri Lanka’s second city.
When?
The outer circular and Colombo-Katunayake (airport) roads are scheduled for 2012. So are the Colombo-Kandy and Colombo Anuradhapura highways. The first phase of the Colombo-Kandy Highway (to Ambepussa) is scheduled for 2016.
Assuming everything gets late and overbudget as usual, we’ll still have a drastically different Sri Lanka by 2020 and, I daresay, a much more rational one.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
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Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
w00t??? no highway to Bandarawela/Badulla ??? that’s unfair!
This is good news. Thanks for the info!
Colombo – Kandy Highway would be the most challenging job.
Completely different ball game to building highways on flat land.
I think the next should be Outer Circular road. We badly need that.
There will be motorbikes on the highways, as long as they can do 80kmph. So no piddly C90s and Scooty Peps.
I thought so, but motorbikes seem to be barred:
“The RDA in discussion with relevant agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles has stipulated the type of vehicles which are not allowed to enter the expressway. Accordingly, vehicles such as motorcycles, three-wheelers and tractors will not be allowed.” (Lakbima)
Hmm I see. Strange.
The cost of living and high unemployment has crippled much of the Sri Lanka population, and yet, highways, new roads, and bridges are blossoming all over the island with unprecedented speed and efficiency. When the jobs will be created with unprecedented speed and efficiency ?
You could always boycott the new highways, roads and bridges as a form of protest you know.
This is a new ‘gundu’ to divert attention from the rising costs of living …. :)
Le sigh. The Southern Expressway project was started in 1988. These infrastructure projects span governments and are far less politicized than people imagine.
Eruditely Elucidate me , how the hard earned billions of Sri Lanka taxpayers’’ money which were wasted on E01-Highway to Nowhere is not another White Elephant ?
No “taxpayer money” was spent on the highway, as the funding came entirely from 3 foreign parties and payback will be over several decades, from the money earned on tolls. Which, at 1ml rs per 12 hours shouldn’t take too many decades to reach 70 billion. Get your facts straight before feeling sorry for the taxes that you evade anyway.
Because a white elephant is something of no use. These sort of highways are something that we have needed for decades and are finally getting. Along with an improved rail system, these sort of infrastructure projects are exactly what we need. It takes 3 hours to travel a 100kmph at the moment! With a better transport system, people can live further away from cities, have cheaper houses, a healthier style of life, and be happier. It will also enable the country to support a larger population than it can today, since people won’t all have to be crowded into the cities to be able to work. It will also mean the rural areas will develop more to support people who work in the cities and expect things like supermarkets, cinemas, and restaurants near to their rural homes. It also means that we can transport goods across the country much faster, particularly perishable items, livestock, etc, saving money and energy that would otherwise have been wasted on storage.
Is that erudite enough for you? You really needed someone to explain to you why a better transport system is a good thing?
It’s not a road to nowhere. It’s a road to Galle, and soon Matara, and Hikka and Aluthgama and any number of places along the way.
The government has some stupid projects, but this isn’t one of them.
Hello Diaz, you want job creation and you oppose building of highways, new roads and bridges! what gives. The express way did not build by itself, people did, from engineers, planners, to the guy who panted the lane dividers worked together to build it and unlike you must be very proud have involved with the project. Take a breather, look at it again, it always works.
Awesome. Even Charles Haviland from the BBC seems to be impressed. I read somewhere they have designed the highway so that eventually it will have three lanes either way. IMO next should be the highway to Kandy – the drive there and back can be absolutely horrendous. With a highway Kandy should be easily reachable under an hour.
One major reason for lack of development in SL is because most of the places in SL are not well connected to rest of the country. Providing better connectivity will boost economies outside Colombo and create opportunities.
Highways were always something that Sri Lanka lacked, and this is DEFINITELY an excellent step in the right direction. The highways will help boost the economy and tourism too, and ultimately help the country.
But we also need a revamp for the railway network – probably a monorail system for people to travel within Colombo.
People here spend so much time travelling, by the time you get to work, you are exhausted! It’s terrible to see people suffering so much (standing in packed slow moving buses) just to earn a living.
Anyways, one step at a time, hopefully large leaps in the right direction for transport.
We have roads aplenty in Karachi. You guys need to learn the advantages of a good road works project. The kickbacks are to die for!
[...] The Colombo-Kandy Highway is set to connect at Kadawatha (partially by 2016, probably by 2020), and the airport road near Ragama (they say 2012). Then there is an Airport to Anuradhapura road, eventually linking to a Northern Expressway to Jaffna (The Next Expressways). [...]