Underground cavities affect flyover’s work

KUCHING: Progress for construction of the Mile 6 Interchange Kuching Serian Road flyover has been affected by a large number of cavities underground.

Lebuhraya Borneo Utara Sdn Bhd (LBU) said on its website that the project team building the interchange found the cavities, which pose a challenge to the construction and have caused work to be delayed.

The cavities are said to be so severe that the project team has had to undertake necessary treatment to deal with the problem before any further construction work could be carried out.

“We encountered the cavities in the limestone strata in the ground and this has affected four out of the 11 piers that we have to do. The remaining piers are not affected based on our soil studies.

“Before the pier work proceeds, we have to do the pre-boring to find out whether there is any cavity in each of the 11 piers. Cavities have to be treated by filling them with concrete before we can do the 1,000mm diametre bore piling works. Because of this, our construction work is delayed,” said LBU project manager for Sematan-Sungai Moyan (Works Package 02) Dahlim Mungkil in the statement.

Dahlim added construction work is now focused on bored piling work, which would continue until July this year.

“After the bored piling, we will move on to do other works like pile caps and columns as well as the cross-head beams,” he said, adding that the 430-metre interchange is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

To address traffic congestion in the Mile 6 area, Dahlim said there is a dedicated traffic management team with seven personnel on site to manage and monitor traffic furniture.

Temporary street lighting has been put up to ensure good visibility at the work site for road users.

“The traffic management team has put up many plastic hoardings along the alignment as currently we are carrying out piling works at the median or centre of the interchange.

“The plastic hoarding is necessary to keep the construction activities out of sight from the curious public, who may slow down their vehicles and contribute to the already congested stretch. It is also for safety purposes,” he said.

He also said two out of the four lanes in the vicinity had to be closed to enable the construction works to be carried out.

“In place for this is we have to widen the road on both the Kuching and Serian bound routes to divert traffic. We have also implemented work for a night shift, where the project team starts work from 8.30pm onwards until midnight to do concreting and premixing works,” he added.

LBU also explained that under Works Package 02, there are five more interchanges to be built other than Mile 6.

They are Mile 4 1⁄2, Mile 7, Mile 10, Bau, and Lundu Interchanges, which are in various stages of works.

Samling Resources Sdn Bhd is the main contractor for this works package.