Department repairing leaking main pipe beneath Jalan Sepanggar Bay
Published on: Friday, December 08, 2023
By: Sidney Skinner
Water welling up from the leaking MSCL pipe beneath Jalan Sepanggar Bay had given rise to the potholes which had formed on the stretch.
THE Water Department is in the process of dealing with a leaking distribution pipe beneath Jalan Sepanggar Bay, while the Papar District Council has had a drain built along a section of Jalan Taman Limauan as part of efforts to upgrade this Kinarut road.
This action is meant to address the ponding problem which has been causing potholes to form on these stretches.
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Both agencies were responding to feed back about the traffic hazards and inconvenience which drivers experienced because of the damaged asphalt.
The Manggatal and Kinarut motorists who spoke out about the road woes provided Hotline with the location of the respective ‘trouble spots’. This information was forwarded to the Department and Council.
An excavator was deployed to enable the contractor’s workers to access the burst sections of the pipe.
A spokesman for the former authority said a mid-steel-cement-lined (MSCL) water mains which spanned the width of Jalan Sepanggar Bay, near the Wangsa Timber Industries Sdn Bhd building, was found to have burst in three places.
“We suspect that the pipe may have given way under the weight of the many 10-tonne lorries which use the road daily,” he said on December 7.
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“A contractor with the Water Department has been attending to the leaks since last Thursday.”
He said an excavator was deployed to remove the top-soil so that his workers could reach the affected distribution mains which had a diameter of 450millimetres.
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One of the Public Works Department (PWD)’s concessionaires put up warning signs and barricades to divert the traffic on the dual carriageway, according to him.
The spokesman explained that the PWD was responsible for maintaining Jalan Sepanggar Bay.
“By the first half of this week, our contractor had finished dealing with two of the leaks. Gravel was poured over the affected portions of the road.”
When asked why the work was being drawn out, he said this was an unavoidable consequence of the inclement weather which the State Capital had been experiencing off late.
“There is nothing that we would like more than to have the repairs completed as quickly as possible.
“Unfortunately, we could not have foreseen the heavy rains which have been falling, on and off, in the afternoons over the past few days.
“Activity at the site had to be temporarily suspended each time there was a downpour.”
A road roller grades the layer of asphalt which has been poured over this Kinarut stretch.
The spokesman said the excavated sections, which had been covered with crusher-run, would be left untouched for “three to four days” to determine if the repairs held.
“The contractor will arrange to have a new layer of asphalt applied to the surface of the road, should everything remain in order with the distribution pipe.
“Weather permitting, we tentatively expect to have this reinstatement carried out at some point next week.”
Meanwhile, the District Council has refurbished the main road between the bridge, near Taman Limauan, and the junction to the Kinarut South Residences.
A spokesman for the agency said a preliminary inspection of the stretch was made in September, shortly after the agency was contacted by the media.
“Four of our officers personally corroborated the Kinarut motorist’s grievance,” he said.
“They observed that rainwater had a tendency to pool on the surface road because of the poor drainage in the area.”
He said a 130-metre section of Jalan Taman Limauan was, subsequently, blocked off to allow the stretch to be upgraded.
A notice about the temporary closure of the road was put up, with drivers being advised to take an alternative route in order to reach their homes, according to him.
“A concrete drain was put in place on the verge to channel away the run off from the stretch.
“It took three weeks for the road work to be completed. We initially expected it to last about 10 days but the contractor, appointed to perform the task, ran into problems obtaining a sufficient amount of asphalt to resurface the stretch.”
When asked how often maintenance was carried out Jalan Taman Limauan, the spokesman said this was done as and when it was warranted.
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