THE Sarawak Public Works Department will construct a temporary bailey bridge to enable people and vehicles at the Song riverine near Kapit to cross Sungai Musah after the existing bridge was closed due to structural defects. 

Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah said he had directed the department to start working on the 80m bailey bridge within a month. 

The 166m-long Sungai Musah bridge on Jalan Tekait-Musah, about 21km from Song town, has been closed since September 21 due to damage reportedly caused by soil erosion. 

With the closure, those who relied on it had to cross the river on longboats provided by the JKR Kapit office. 

JKR also provided two vans, on each side of the river, for onward transport. 

Uggah, who is also the state’s infrastructure minister, said the bailey bridge would cost an estimated RM4.8 million. 

He said the state had allocated RM50 million for such emergencies and repairs to key infrastructure damaged by natural disasters. 

The fund is parked with the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC). 

The deputy premier also said a consultant had been engaged to determine what caused the old bridge to buckle and to make recommendations to salvage it. 

“Then we will decide on the next course of action.” 

He described the structural failure as an “unfortunate incident”. 

JKR, he added, was always monitoring the health of all bridges statewide. 

Earlier in his briefing, the Kapit divisional JKR engineer, Jawa Bara, said the Sungai Musah bridge’s second pier had tilted due to soil movement in the river, causing a section of it to buckle. 

That bridge was completed in 2014 at a cost of RM55 million. – September 30, 2023.