Sections of the national freeways are to see a spike in traffic congestion over the first four days of the six-day Lunar New Year holiday, starting today, the National Freeway Bureau said.
It is estimated that travel time on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) today is to increase anywhere from eight minutes to 32 minutes on southbound sections between Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口) and Hsinchu, and from Changhua to the county’s Puyan Township (埔鹽) starting between 7am and noon, the bureau said.
Journey time is expected to triple from 14 minutes to 42 minutes on the southbound section of the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) from New Taipei City’s Yingge (鶯歌) to Guanxi (關西) in Hsinchu County from 8pm to 12pm, it added.
Tomorrow, congestion is expected on the Hukou to Hsinchu section from 9am to 1pm.
Heavy traffic is expected on national freeways No. 1, No. 3 and the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (Freeway No. 5) on Saturday, when married daughters traditionally return home to visit their parents, relatives and close friends, the bureau said.
They include the Hukou to Hsinchu and Yingge to Guanxi sections on Freeway No. 1, and the section of Freeway No. 3 from Taipei’s Nangang (南港) to New Taipei City’s Pinglin (坪林), it said.
Traffic on the northbound Toucheng (頭城) in Yilan County to Pinglin section of Freeway No. 5 are also likely see heavy congestion from 4pm to 11pm, it added.
On Sunday, congestion is forecast for northbound traffic, it said.
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