If you live in Mount Erskine, Tanjung Tokong or Pulau Tikus, the junctions around Jalan Mount Erskine, Jalan Gottlieb, Jalan Burma and Jalan Bagan Jermal are part of the daily drive. The news from Parliament this week is that the RM33 million underpass planned for them will be built as a tunnel, so those roads can stay open while the work goes on.
Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu told a Dewan Rakyat special chamber session on 15 October 2026 that the original plan to dig the road open would have meant major closures on all four roads (EdgeProp). "If we close the roads, there will be even more complaints," she said, as reported by PenangToday. Anyone who has sat in Pulau Tikus traffic on a weekday evening will not argue with that.
The underpass will run about 780m, 8m wide, linking Jalan Mount Erskine with Jalan Burma. The Penang Island City Council (MBPP) is running the project. The timetable she gave is long but specific: design finished by December 2026, tenders open in February 2027 and close at the end of March, a contractor appointed in June, site possession in July 2027 and completion in November 2030.
The money has grown along the way. The project was first estimated at RM25 million in the 2025 federal budget, PenangToday reported. The federal government released RM5 million for preliminary works in 2026, and approved the full RM33 million on 9 June after MBPP finished that preliminary work early (PenangToday).
Not everyone in the neighbourhood was on board at the start. PenangToday noted that a Mount Erskine resident objected to land acquisition for the project in June 2025. The reports this week did not say whether the tunnel design changes how much private land is needed, and that is the question owners along the route will want MBPP to answer when the design is out in December.
For now, the practical upshot is simple: no plan to tutup jalan for three years, and a tunnel that should, if the dates hold, be open before the end of 2030.
Sources: EdgeProp, PenangToday, Penang Property Talk.
