West Coast Expressway

The West Coast Expressway, WCE or (Lebuhraya Pantai Barat) (LPB), (E32) is a planned expressway that will be built on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia. It will connect Taiping, Perak to Banting in Selangor. The expressway will be built by Konsortium Lebuhraya Pantai Barat (KLPB) soon, as approval has just been given by the government for the construction to begin.

Overview
Construction of the expressway will be divided into eleven packages. Works for the first five packages will commence in April 2014 of which three packages are in Selangor while the other two in Perak. The stretch between Tanjung Karang to Hutan Melintang and Teluk Intan to Kampung Lekir will be on the existing stretch of Federal route meanwhile the stretch between Parit to Siputeh will be on the existing stretch of Federal route  which both will be upgraded as part of the expressway. The expressway will have a closed toll system like North-South Expressway.

The highway will cost about RM 4.6 billion, where RM3.6 billion will be construction costs. The concessionaire company is planning to issue bonds in 2009. Construction has been delayed to 2009 because of changes in alignment and costing. It is expected to complete in 2012.

On 12 November 2008, the project was shelved as terms of the current deal could not be finalized within a 15-month time frame. A new tender have to be open out.

On 26 January 2012, Europlus Group Bhd officially obtain the MYR 7.07 billion tender to build the highway from the government. The highway will have a total length of 316 km, where 92 km will be toll free. The highway will be built on the build-operate-transfer concept with a concession period of 60 years.

Route background
The Kilometer Zero of the expressway is said to be located after the border limit of Changkat Jering Interchange on the North South Expressway Northern Route. However, it is yet unknown where it will be located.

Overlaps

 * Tanjung Karang-Hutan Melintang : Federal Route 5
 * Teluk Intan-Kampung Lekir : Federal Route 5
 * Parit-Siputih : Jalan Siputeh-Batu Hampar

Alternate routes

 * Beruas-Taiping South Interchange : Federal Route 60