What with all the extra traffic congestion from road closures, obtrusive construction and even sinkholes, pretty much everyone in the Klang Valley can’t wait for the MRT system to be completed and operational. Guess what – it’s happening (slightly) sooner than you think.
MRT Corp CEO Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid has announced that progress on the city’s largest ever public project is slightly ahead of schedule, with more than half of its tunneling operations completed.
“If you look at the progress of the MRT line one overall, as far as our plan is concerned, we are supposed to be at 42.78 per cent completion.
“Actual progress is 43.49, so we are slightly ahead of plan,” he told reporters at the MRT Corp office.
He said 56% of all scheduled tunnelling work has been completed, and that one of the Variable Density Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) is now working on the most challenging area in the entire project – Bukit Bintang, where the Karstic Limestone area transitions to the underground landfill known as the Kenny Hill Formation.
So far, the Bukit Bintang area has been the most problematic, with three sinkholes emerging in the district as a consequence of the tunnelling work. The sinkhole in front of the Audi showroom there was as wide as 10 metres across and 18 metres long.
Director of Tunnels Blaise Pearce told The Malay Mail Online‘s Melissa Chi that of the total 9.5km of underground alignment for MRT Line One, 7.5km are in the problematic Karstic Limestone area, which contains cavities, cracks and caves.
He explained the sinkholes were caused when the TBM hit fractured rocks and “variable slurry”, a thick, viscous form of mud that would be pushed to the surface.
The Bukit Bintang area is also challenging due to the possible ground anchors left behind after the construction of the Pavillion shopping mall.
“We would have to cut them with the tunnel boring machine which it is capable of doing, but we would have to remove them manually, which means going into the TBM and keep it clean so it can function correctly and efficiently,” Pearce explained.
Azhar added that the northbound line from Semantan to KL Sentral has also been completed.
“We are on track to complete phase one of MRT line one by December 2016 as promised and we are scheduled to complete the whole 51 kilometres by July 2017, as promised.
Azhar said thus far, MRT Corp has not spent more than RM7 billion in total for construction. The entire MRT project is expected to cost RM23 billion, all in.
