‘Repair may take two weeks’
Road work can only begin when rainy spells ease, says Zairil
BALIK PULAU: After putting up with the bottleneck at the hillside road leading to their homes for seven months, it will be at least two more weeks of agony for Balik Pulau residents before traffic flow returns to normal following a recent cave-in.
State Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said that was the period estimated for remedial work to be completed.
He said the contractor would only be able to start repairs when the rainy spell eased.
The 80m-road section leading to Balik Pulau had cost RM1.7m to repair after it collapsed last October. It was reopened on April 26.
On Wednesday, three days after the south-west monsoon began, the extra lane on the downward slope side of the road sank.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said he had instructed Zairil to find out why a part of the rebuilt road caved in.
“For such a new road to crack again, I can think of only two possibilities. One is the integrity of the new retaining wall, whether it is solid or cracks had appeared. If that is so, there will be a big problem because it means that the wall cannot withstand the load.
“The second possibility is the compaction of the filled material. After the wall was built, they needed to fill up the area again.
“Was the compaction done adequately to take the load of the traffic?” he asked.
Chow, who was speaking to reporters after attending an event at USM, said the road repairs were done by a contractor with a fiveyear concession from the Public Works Department for all road repairs in the area.
A Balik Pulau resident, who wanted to be known only as Ali, expressed frustration when met at the collapsed section of Jalan Bukit Lama, here.
“Look at the road. It looks like it has sunk a little further. This is bound to happen as it has been raining almost non-stop.
“It is too bad that the road which was just repaired sank again after only a few days,’’ said Ali.