between the 1990s and the 2000s, traffic congestion occurred at the sultan ismail bridge since the official opening of the north–south expressway southern route between ayer keroh and pagoh and the opening of the tangkak and pagoh interchange on 1 april 1989. to this end, in 1998, the federal government announced that the new second bridge would be built at parit bunga to ease congestion on the existing bridge. the second bridge was constructed between march 2001 and june 2003 and was officially opened to traffic in 2004 alongside the opening of the muar bypass.