Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya MRT tunnel boring works early next year
GUANGZHOU: Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd ( MRT Corp) will begin digging underground tunnels for the Sungai Buloh- Serdang-Putrajaya ( SSP) line in the first quarter of next year.
MRT Corp’s Strategic Communications and Affairs director Datuk Najmuddin Abdullah said the 13.5 km undertaking would begin at Jalan Ipoh and end at Bandar Malaysia Selatan in Kuala Lumpur.
He said works would commence once MRT Corp received two of four tunnel boring machines ( TBM) in November and December. The remaining two TBMs are expected to arrive next year.
Najmuddin said the four variable density machines were currently undergoing factory acceptance tests ( FAT) at Herrenknecht Tunneling Machinery Co. Ltd. in Guangzhou, China.
He said the FAT involved more than 400 inspection processes to ensure that the system and design of the machines met specifications set in the contract.
“The machines are then sent to the site for installation which takes two months, before being used for the task.
“Each machine is worth between RM40 million and RM60 million based on the specifications,” he told Bernama after observing the FAT process here recently.
Najmuddin said 12 TBMs would be used to construct the underground tunnels for the MRT SSP line, of which eight had earlier been used for the Sungai BulohKajang (SBK) MRT project.
The underground alignment for the second line is longer than the SBK line which is only 9.5 km, hence why more machines were needed, according to him.
He said the TBMs were as tall as a four- storey building and 6.7 metres in diameter, with an average boring ability of 10 metres a day.
Of the 12 machines,10 are suitably density variant for karstic limestone soil while two, of the earth pressure balance type, are suitable for Kenny Hill Formation (deposits of rock and sandy).
Najmuddian said the MRT SSP project was 12.05 per cent completed, and expected to reach 19 per cent by the end of the year.
The proposed SSP line, a mega public transport project costing RM32 billion, involves a 52.2 km alignment covering 37 stations including 11 underground, and scheduled to be fully completed in 2022.