The stretch of Penampang-Tambunan road that collapsed early yesterday.
PENAMPANG: Hundreds of vehicles and travellers were held up yesterday following a second road collapse in two days in the state.
The latest incident affecting some 20 metres stretch of the Penampang-Tambunan road at around Km 21 early yesterday caused serious damage to a house and left it along with a number of other houses clinging precariously to the fragile roadside slope.
No one was however reported hurt in the landslide which occurred near Kampung Timpoluon at about 4am amidst heavy rain that occurred since Thursday.
This followed the collapse of a section of Ranau-Telupid road, near Kg Marakau on Thursday, which also affected many travellers.
The affected stretch of the road is located close to a dam and a clogged stream, which the owner of the damaged house blamed for the collapse.
Henry Gumisi, 53, said he had brought the problem to the attention of the relevant authorities several times for the past couple of months but no one came to look into it.
“I heard a loud cracking sound at about 3.20am and went to check only to find that part of my kitchen had started to crumble,” he said at the scene yesterday.
He said at about 4am he and his wife heard more noises and realised that the road beside his house had collapsed, dragging down his chicken coops, fish pond and kitchen.
Meanwhile, Penampang MP Darell Leiking, who was also met at the scene, said he was informed that several houses were slightly affected by the landslide but only one house was destroyed.
Darell said the collapse was allegedly due to earthworks near to the affected stretch.
“I am pleased that responsible agencies such as Public Works Department, Fire and Rescue Department, as well as other relevant authorities had taken prompt action to handle the matter.
“The department’s engineers and workers were already at the scene when I arrived and they are building a temporary road at the side of the road.
“As of now, people have to walk across to the other side and get onto another car to travel to their destinations,” he said, adding that there was no casualty reported.
Meanwhile, work to repair the cave-in section of Ranau-Telupid road was completed yesterday and is passable to vehicles again.
The road collapse on Thursday held up vehicles for some 30 kilometres right from Kundasang town to the affected site at Km 1, near Kampung Marakau.
Public Works Department director Datuk John Anthony in a text message yesterday confirmed that the repair was completed yesterday.
On the collapsed stretch of Penampang-Tambunan road, John said work was being carried out to restore the road link and if everything goes smoothly, he expected the stretch to be made passable to motorists again by 7pm yesterday.
Following the collapse yesterday, those motorists travelling to Tambunan were forced to take the alternative route via Keningau through the Kimanis route.