ROCK DELAY PIPE LAYING WORK

DISCUSS.... Hiew discussing with the engineers.

THE PUBLIC complaints continue due to the inconvenience, traffic jam and bad road surface caused by the sewer pipe laying work carried out in many places in the Kota Kinabalu City. The most complained case is in the Kolombong Industrial Estate where the digging work and the obstruction had caused much problems and dangers.

The Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Hiew King Cheu has inspected the site this morning with Edward Ewol Mujie and Stephen Yarman together with the site engineers and representatives of the contractor.

MP Hiew asked them on why the work is so slow and taking up a long time to complete, and now already delayed. The contractor explained that the pipe laying work along the Kolombong road has actually been completed and joined up. The outstanding work left is to backfill and to resurface the road there.

The contractor explained that the delay is due to the pipe laying work encountered rock layer and that caused great difficulty in the excavation work. Luckily, this was overcome and finally the pipe is put in place and connected up. They will start on the back filling immediately.

The contractor promised and assured that the stretch of road will be completely reinstated and resurfaced latest by the end of March 2012.

MP Hiew also asked the contractor on the pipe laying work at the traffic light junction at Mile 5.5 Tuaran Road where there is also a pipe jacking work underneath the road junction which similarly caused congestion and danger at the junction when cars from Tuaran Road turning into Lintas Road.

DEEP.... 24 feet deep trench with workers working in it.

EXCAVATED.... rocks excavated from the trench.

The contractor said they have also encountered rock underneath the junction and it is very difficult to cut through. They have imported special cutting tools to cut through the rock, and now they are left with only 5 more lengths of pipe to get through to the other side.

They said this is a very difficult job due to the depth and a difficult working condition. Their workers are doing extra hours to get the pipe laying done as soon as possible. They estimated that if everything goes well, they should be able to punch through to the other side by the middle of March.

The contractor apologizes for the inconveniences and trouble caused, and they said they will speed up the work to complete the work soonest possible.

MP Hiew urges the contractor to be more careful on the all the safety aspect of the road users, and he wants the contractor to use more safety signage and warning lights at night to caution the drivers.