THE Satok suspension bridge in Kuching will not be opened on Malaysia Day, September 16, as scheduled because a structural defect has made it unsafe.

A load test last week found that the left cable anchor block – the concrete blocks to which all suspension cables are anchored – on the Kubah Ria side of the bridge tilting by about a foot.

Deputy Chief Minister James Masing, who visited the site this afternoon to get answers from Public Works Department engineers and the contractors, was told that a load test simulating 800 people on the bridge last Wednesday had caused the tilt.

While he was briefed on all the possibilities on what might have caused the tilt, Masing, who is also state infrastructure and ports development minister, said the engineering flaw is unacceptable.

“That’s why we have engineers who are suppose to find out all that could go wrong when they designed the bridge.

“The question now is: ‘Who is at fault?’

“Is this a design fault or a fault by the contractors?” he said .

Masing has ordered the bridge to be cordoned off and no member of the public allowed on it.

The new bridge is a replica of the iconic one built in 1926, which collapsed into the Sarawak River in 2004. 

Failure to maintain the bridge’s many cables supporting the suspension was widely believed to have caused the original bridge to fall apart.

The original suspension bridge, built to carry two 12-inch pipes across the river in order to supply fresh water from the Matang hills to Kuching town, could carry small cars even though it was a predominantly pedestrian bridge.

It was closed to pedestrians in 1992 and it remained close till its collapse on October 7, 2004.

The new RM8 million pedestrian-only bridge, which spans the river parallel to the Tun Rahman Yaakub bridge, will link the popular Kubah Ria eating place on the Petra Jaya side of the river and the end of Satok Road on the city side.

Masing, at the bridge’s ground-breaking ceremony in October 2017, said the bridge is 213m long and 3m wide. – September 2, 2019.