Safe pedestrian walkway urgently needed
KOTA KINABALU: The authorities have been urged to look into the safety of pedestrians passing through the newly completed Jesselton Mall/ Residencies Complex here.
Luyang assemblyman Hiew King Cheu made the call after he and his advisor Edward Ewol Mujie inspected the place following public requests to check on the walkway in front of the newly completed project.
During the site inspection, they noticed there was road construction going on in front of the new mall leading to the Jesselton Point from Suria Sabah.
“The widening work is supposed to link up the road by the side of the Suria Sabah to the Jesselton Point.
“The progress of the construction work is physically held up by the marine police office which is right in the middle of the new road construction blocking the work. It is not known when the marine police office will be removed to enable the road work to be carried out,” said Hiew.
He also noticed that tourists in big groups were literally walking through a construction site without any proper safety protection, like safety signboard, barricades, timber board walk, and hoarding to separate them from the heavy construction equipment like motor grader and roller-compactor.
He said they seemed like walking through the place “at their own risk”.
“This is not acceptable, because if any accident happens to our tourists, we all are answerable and accountable for it.”
“It is a very urgent case,” he said, advising the Public Works Department to expedite the provision of adequate safety protection to pedestrians.
At the same time, he urged the authorities to move the marine police office that is blocking the way immediately for the work to be continued and completed as soon as possible.