ENGINEERING NOSTALGIA
INGENIEUR
FEDERAL HIGHWAY
– The Old Kuala LumpurPort Swettenham Highway
By Cheo Hong Keyong
T h e Ku a l a L u m p u r- P o r t
Swettenham Highway started
construction in 1956 and was
completed in 1959 at the cost of
RM2 million. The highway linked
Petaling Jaya and Sungei Way
along the route with a designed
travelling speed of 60 mph;
considered a good speed then
compared with the old road. The
highway starts from Seputeh
and ends at Port Klang.
Later, with the growing
importance of Port Swettenham
(now called Port Klang) as
Malaysia’s national port, it
was eventually upgraded to a
full motorway by replacing the
existing at-grade intersections
with interchanges. This became
Malaysia’s first expressway.
This photo shows the EPF building in its original façade. At that
time, the existing flyo ver link to University Hospital was not
constructed yet (Courtesy of Jabatan Penerangan Malaysia)
The present Federal Highway
and part of EPF Building plus
the flyover to University Hospital
The new façade of the EPF
Building
6
80
VOL
– DECEMBER 2015
VOL64
55OCTOBER
JUNE 2013