Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway

Template:Short description Template:Template other[[Category:Infobox road instances Template:Infobox road/meta/mask/category]] The Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway is a interstate controlled-access highway in Peninsular Malaysia. It runs between the town of Gombak in Selangor to the southwest and Karak in Pahang to the northeast. The expressway was previously a single-carriageway trunk road forming part of federal route 2; this designation has been kept after the upgrade in 1997. It shares its designation with the East Coast Expressway proper that succeeds it.

The highway has many hairpin bends and many stretches pass through remote forested terrain. Vehicular accidents, many of them fatal, have often occurred on the highway. Because of its remoteness and high number of accidents, the expressway has developed a reputation for being haunted (Example The Legend of The Volkswagen Kuning In English it means Yellow Volkswagen) (see List of reportedly haunted highways).

Route description

The expressway begins at Gombak, Selangor and its interchange with the Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2. Next, the expressway passes the Titiwangsa Range and the Genting Sempah Tunnel towards Genting Sempah at the border with Pahang.

The section between Bentong and Karak is the sole route from Kuala Lumpur to Kuantan and vice versa, as Jalan Gombak, which serves as the toll-free alternative for the expressway, ends at Ketari, Bentong. At Karak, route 2 splits off, heading southeast towards the town proper while the expressway heads northeast to meet the East Coast Expressway.

History

Two-lane federal highway

Kuala Lumpur–Karak Highway was originally built in the 1970s by the government of Malaysia as an alternative for the winding, narrow route 68 which runs from Gombak in Kuala Lumpur to Bentong, Pahang. The highway is also a part of route 2. The highway included a 900-metre tunnel at Genting Sempah, which became Malaysia's first highway tunnel ever constructed. It was officially opened in 1979 by the former Minister of Works and Communications, Abdul Ghani Gilong.

However, the cost of the construction of this highway was considered as expensive for Malaysia which at that time was an agricultural country. Therefore, the government decided to make Kuala Lumpur–Karak Highway as a toll road to help cover all the construction works. As a result, two toll gates were constructed at Gombak and Bentong and the toll road was administered under Malaysian Highway Authority. The highway was officially opened to traffic in 1977.

File:BukitTinggiExit.PNG

Signage indicating approaching exit to Bukit Tinggi, Pahang

Multi-lane expressway

The importance of Kuala Lumpur–Karak Highway as the main road from Kuala Lumpur to eastern states of Peninsular Malaysia resulted in the government's decision to upgrade the highway to a multi-lane expressway by duplicating the whole highway stretch at another side. Thus, the former two-lane highway become a dual-carriageway with six lanes (three in each direction) from Kuala Lumpur to Genting Highlands exit and four lanes (two in each direction) for the rest of the expressway.

The upgrading works also included the construction of a second tunnel located beside the existing tunnel to provide additional two lanes for eastbound traffic, widening the toll gates at Gombak and Bentong and also constructing interchanges to replace junctions. However, some junctions were impossible to be upgraded to interchanges due to their geographical locations and therefore some U-turns were constructed to provide entry and exit to the junction for the opposite direction of the expressway. The expressway has two separate carriageway at Genting Sempah in Selangor–Pahang border (one for Selangor side and one for Pahang side) due to their geographical locations. The upgrade works of the expressway was completed in 1997.

MTD Prime held the concession to operate the expressway. The expressway acquired its official route number, E8, at completion, which resulted in overlapping route numbers. As a result, some maps labelled the expressway as E8 and some other maps labelled the expressway as federal route 2.

On 7 April 2011, ANIH Berhad became the concession holder after taking over operations from MTD Prime Sdn Bhd and Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd.

Major events

• 28 January 1990 – 17 people including 11 FRU riot police personal were killed in a collision between Federal Reserve Unit riot police vehicles, a tanker lorry, a passenger bus and 10 cars at kilometre 32.5 of the highway not far from Genting Sempah Tunnel in Gombak, Selangor.
• 11 November 2015 – A landslide has occurred at km 52.4 of the Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway between Lentang and Bukit Tinggi, Pahang due to heavy rains. The Lentang–Bukit Tinggi stretch of the expressway was closed to traffic.
• 18 December 2021 -- A storm caused the highway to be blocked in three places by floodwater, mud and forest debris.
• 25 July 2023 – A sinkhole near Bentong Plaza Toll appeared on KM 66.1 at 8.34pm were involved due to the East Coast Rail Link tunnel boring works. It caused the road closure on the site and ANIH Berhad forced road users to use the exit at the Bentong east exit (near the Benus industrial) and enter the Bentong west exit (near Bentong toll plaza).

Toll systems

The Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway using opened toll system.

Electronic Toll Collections (ETC)

As part of an initiative to facilitate faster transaction at the Gombak and Bentong Toll Plazas, all toll transactions at both toll plazas on the Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway have been conducting electronically via Touch 'n Go cards or SmartTAGs starting 9 September 2015.

Toll rates

(Starting 15 October 2015)

Class	Type of vehicles	Rate (in Malaysian Ringgit (RM))
		Gombak	Bentong
0	Motorcycles, bicycles or vehicles with 2 or less wheels	Free
1	Vehicles with 2 axles and 3 or 4 wheels excluding taxis	6.00	3.50
2	Vehicles with 2 axles and 5 or 6 wheels excluding buses	12.00	7.00
3	Vehicles with 3 or more axles	18.00	10.50
4	Taxis	3.00	1.80
5	Buses	5.00	3.00

Interchange list

km	Exit	Interchange	To	Remarks
	801	Gombak North Interchange	Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2 Southwest Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur Kepong Sentul Rawang Ipoh Petaling Jaya Southeast Ulu Klang Ampang Cheras Kajang Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) REDIRECTTemplate:Airport sign Johor Bahru Melaka Seremban Shah Alam Klang||Directional T expressway interchange
Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 2 Start/end of highway JKR border limit
Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway Start/end of expressway ANIH Berhad border limit
19 19
Gombak toll plaza GBK Touch 'n Go SmartTAG MyRFID SmartTAG Touch 'n Go Opened toll systems Pay toll
19.9 19.9		Template:Parking Layby signs Gombak toll plaza GBK	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign TnG TAG File:Information centre (malaysia).jpg Customer Service Centre||East Coast bound
20 20		Template:Parking Layby signs Gombak Layby	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign Template:Toilet sign Layby||East Coast bound
20.1 20.1
		UIA Interchange	KL Node Expressway North Rawang Kuala Selangor South Kajang Hulu Langat Ampang Ulu Klang	Interchange Under planning
		Template:Parking Layby signs BH Petrol BH Petrol Layby	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign File:Petrol station (malaysia).jpg BH Petrol||East Coast bound
		Template:Parking Layby signs Gombak Layby	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign Template:Toilet sign Template:Food court sign Template:Surau sign Layby Lemang stalls||West Coast bound
		Template:JPJ Malaysian Road Transport Department (JPJ) Enforcement Stations	Template:JPJ Malaysian Road Transport Department (JPJ) Enforcement Stations	East Coast bound
		Sungai Gombak bridge ---m above sea level
		Kampung Hulu Gombak ---m above sea level
		U-Turn ---m above sea level	U-Turn
		Template:Parking Layby signs Lemang stalls ---m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign Layby Lemang stalls||East Coast bound
30 30		---m above sea level
30.5 30.5		---m above sea level
31 31		---m above sea level
31.5 31.5		---m above sea level
		---m above sea level		Start/end of separated carriageway
		Viaduct ---m above sea level		Kuala Lumpur bound, Engage lower gear West coast bound
		---m above sea level		Kuala Lumpur bound, Engage lower gear Start/end of separated carriageway
		Viaduct ---m above sea level		Kuala Lumpur bound, Engage lower gear
		Viaduct ---m above sea level		Kuala Lumpur bound, Engage lower gear
	803A	Genting Sempah Interchange 570m above sea level	803A Genting Sempah-Genting Highlands Highway Genting Highlands Gohtong Jaya Institut Aminuddin Baki	Expressway interchange From/to West Coast only
		Genting Sempah Tunnel 700 metres		Start/end of tunnel
Selangor Darul Ehsan Gombak district border
Genting Sempah Tunnel 700 metres Selangor-Pahang border 570m above sea level
Pahang Darul Makmur Bentong district border
		Genting Sempah Tunnel 700 metres		Start/end of tunnel
	803	Genting Sempah Interchange 561m above sea level MTD Prime maintenance office MTD Prime Genting Sempah Tunnel Monitoring and Maintenance Centre	803 Genting Sempah Genting Highlands Gohtong Jaya File:Jkr-ft---.svgC7 Janda Baik Institut Aminuddin Baki	West coast bound
		File:R&R logo.jpg Genting Sempah Rest and Service Area 560m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign File:Petrol station (malaysia).jpg Petronas McDonald's Template:Toilet sign Template:Food court sign Template:ATM machine signs Template:Surau sign||R&R complex
		560m above sea level		Kuantan bound, Engage lower gear Start/end of separated carriageway
	803	Genting Sempah Interchange 559m above sea level MTD Prime maintenance office MTD Prime Genting Sempah Tunnel Monitoring and Maintenance Centre	803 Genting Sempah Genting Highlands Gohtong Jaya File:Jkr-ft---.svgC7 Janda Baik Institut Aminuddin Baki	U-Turn Ramp on East coast bound
		Sungai Tanglir bridge ---m above sea level		Kuantan bound, Engage lower gear East Coast bound
		Template:Parking Layby signs Template:Vista Point signs Genting Sempah vista point and truck stops ---m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign Template:Vista Point signs Template:Truck stops ||West Coast bound
		---m above sea level		Start/end of separated carriageway Start/end of six-lane carriageway Kuantan bound, Engage lower gear
		Sungai Tanglir bridge ---m above sea level		Kuantan bound, Engage lower gear
42 42		---m above sea level		Kuantan bound, Engage lower gear
42.8
43 43		Kampung Bukit Tinggi ---m above sea level	Kampung Bukit Tinggi Selesa Homes Golf and Country Resort	Small interchange Both directions
47 47		---m above sea level
		Sungai Tanglir bridge ---m above sea level
48 48	805	Bukit Tinggi Interchange ---m above sea level	Berjaya Hills Resort (Bukit Tinggi Resort)	Trumpet interchange
		Sungai Benus bridge ---m above sea level
		Template:Parking Layby signs Lentang Layby ---m above sea level	Template:Parking Layby signs Lentang Laybys REDIRECT Template:Parking sign Layby Lentang waterfall and forest reserve Lentang Forest Rangers Office U-Turn West Kuala Lumpur East Kuantan||Both bound
		Kampung Lentang ---m above sea level
		Sungai Gisai bridge ---m above sea level
		Sungai—bridge ---m above sea level
		U-Turn ---m above sea level	U-Turn WEST Kuala Lumpur East Kuantan
		Sungai Benus bridge ---m above sea level
		Dusun Eco Resort ---m above sea level	Dusun Eco Resort	East Coast bound
		Template:Parking Layby signs Petronas Petronas Layby ---m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign File:Petrol station (malaysia).jpg Petronas Template:Toilet sign Template:Food court sign Template:ATM machine signs Template:Surau sign Singgah Food Court||East Coast bound
		Sungai Perting Pandak bridge ---m above sea level
		Sungai Benus bridge ---m above sea level
Bentong toll plaza BTG Touch 'n Go SmartTAG MyRFID SmartTAG Touch 'n Go Opened toll systems Pay toll
		Template:Parking Layby signs Bentong toll plaza BTG ---m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign ||
		Template:Parking Layby signs Bentong Layby ---m above sea level	REDIRECT Template:Parking sign ||West Coast bound
	808	Bentong West Interchange	Bentong Raub Kuala Lipis Bukit Fraser Cameron Highlands	East Coast bound
		MRSM Bentong
		U-Turn	U-TURN
	809	Mempaga Interchange	Central Spine Road Bentong Raub Gua Musang	Trumpet Interchange but no Karak exit
	810	Bentong East Interchange	Kuala Lumpur–Kota Bharu Highway Bentong Raub Kuala Lipis Bukit Fraser Cameron Highlands	Trumpet interchange
		Taman Benus Jaya
		Sungai Bentong bridge
		Sungai Bentong bridge
		Kampung Sungai Dua	Kampung Sungai Dua	Diamond interchange
77 77	813A 813B	Karak Interchange	813A FELDA Mempaga Kampung Cinta Manis Pusat Serenti Mempaga 813B Karak Mancis Kuala Pilah	Semi-Trumpet interchange
Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway
East Coast Expressway
			East East Coast Expressway Kuala Terengganu Kuantan Temerloh Lanchang

See also

• Malaysian Expressway System
• East Coast Expressway

External links

• ANIH Berhad – concession holder of Karak Expressway
• Malaysian Highway Authority
• Exit lists of Karak Expressway