ONE of the three major roads in the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) will feature a land tunnel.

The 4.075km Persiaran Gurney-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu bypass, known as Package 3, will be 50% elevated and 50% underground or at grade.

PTMP special purpose vehicle chief Lim Hock Seng said Package 3 will be built where roads are narrower and unsuitable for viaducts.

He said the double deck land tunnel would be in the Jalan Pangkor and Jalan Perak areas, before the bypass resurfaces in Sungai Pinang.

“The existing road is also narrow on Jalan Sungai Pinang. We cannot build four lanes, which will go right up to the edge of the buildings along the road.

“So the plan is to build a double deck elevated viaduct. We will have two lanes on top, two at the bottom,” he said at a press conference in Komtar today.

The entire project is being undertaken by Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd.

Its senior executive director Le Chee Hoe said the underground tunnel will be built using a tunnel boring machine.

“We cannot do blasting in the city centre,” he said.

The other two roads in the project are the North Coast Pair Road from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang (Package 1) and the Air Itam-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu bypass (Package 2).

Zenith is also building the undersea tunnel linking Persiaran Gurney to Bagan Ajam on the mainland. The entire project is expected to cost RM6.3 billion.

While the feasibility study for the undersea tunnel is still under way, all three roads have received their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval.

Package 2 will be the first road to be built, with construction due to start in the first quarter of next year, followed by Package 1 and 3.

State public works exco Zairil Khir Johari said each road might take three years to build, but if the construction could proceed concurrently, it might take just seven years to complete all three roads.

He said there would be an overall traffic management plan, as required in the EIA, to mitigate traffic in affected areas once construction begins.

Meanwhile, EIA consultant for the three roads, Dr Lee Aik Heng, from Yes Enviro Services, said they were now working on the environmental management plan (EMP) to detail the engineering plans in relation to the roads’ alignment, control measures to prevent vibration, water, air and noise pollution, and other requirements for the projects.

The main contractor appointed by the state has to fulfil 59 conditions, including preparing the EMP, before it is allowed to begin construction. It must also implement measure to control water runoff, siltation, erosion, rock blasting, and safeguard environmental quality.

“The Environmental Department (DOE) imposes the 59 conditions based on the guided-self-regulation principle. The contractor has to submit all the plans to convince the technical agencies that it has done the necessary preparations,” he said. – October 5, 2018.