Aurora Link Road - single to dual carriageway

Aurora Link Road

Aurora Link Road in 1987
Note the Poui trees (Tabebuia rosea) trees planted on both sides of the two-lane single carriageway road.
View looking north-east towards the roundabout near present day Masjid Assyakiriin.

The road is widened to become a four lane dual carriage-way road.
Date taken : 29 October, 2014

 There is a link road that connects the Kidurong Highway to Tanjung Batu Road situated besides the Masjid Assyakiriin.  During the First Boom (1979 - 1983) the link road was called Aurora Link Road because the road led to the Aurora Beach Hotel.  The Aurora Beach Hotel played an important role during the First Boom because it was big enough to accommodate the hundreds of expatriates especially Koreans and Americans involved with the construction of the Bintulu Port and the Liquified Natural Gas plant at Tg. Kidurong.  These expatriates required reasonably good accommodation facilities which the old Bintulu town was unable to provide.   The hotel was speedily constructed within a year and was opened in 1979, largely using the  prefab system.  Basically the hotel rooms were made of metal containers or porta cabins.   The Aurora Link Road was constructed in 1977-78 by the JKR to link the hotel (situated at Tanjung Batu Road)  to the Kidurong Highway thus providing a shortcut  to reach the Kidurong Highway in good time.

During the First Boom the Aurora Beach hotel was quite an institution by itself in booming Bintulu. The hotel provided many entertainment outlets like lounges, restaurants, dance halls, night clubs, offices and even banking (Bank Utama), besides the normal rooms.