THE Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) delivery partner, SRS Consortium, today tried to ease Penangites’ fears and concerns about blasting holes in the state’s hills to build tunnels.

There are fears that the tunnelling to build the Pan Island Link 1 (PIL1) highway would cause the Air Itam Dam on Penang Hill to burst or compromise the structure of the earth dam.

SRS project director Szeto Wai Loong said there are now many blasting methods for going through hard rock or soft ground.

“The environmental impact assessment for tunnel blasting is just the first step. Many steps follow, such as site investigation.

“A report is then submitted to a consultant geologist to determine what kind of blasting to conduct. Before the blasting, we need to get a certified blasting consultant to calculate the blast, where the nearest building is located, and the vibration to control.

“When we built the MRT (mass rapid transit), we did blasting for underground stations. There were buildings 15km to 20km nearby,” he said at the PTMP forum organised by the Penang government at Dewan Sri Pinang this afternoon.

SRS Consortium is led by Gamuda Bhd, one of Malaysia’s biggest infrastructure companies. Gamuda built the MRTs in the Klang Valley and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

It also has experience as an underground contractor tunnelling through the karstic limestones of Kuala Lumpur in the SMART tunnel project.

“We will study where the sensitive areas are. The consultant will also design the blasting where the vibration will be controlled,” Szeto said.

For Penang Hill, which is mostly granite, he said “the rule of thumb is that the vibration cannot go beyond 50m”.

“That is for sure,” he said, as someone among the 800-plus attendees shouted: “Are you sure?”

“Of course we are very sure. We have done a lot of blasting in KL to build tunnels,” Szeto replied.

He said that the construction company would also be concerned for the safety of its workers and the newly created tunnel whenever it did blasting.

“So we need measures to control the blasting, to ensure the tunnel will not be damaged and that our workers inside will be safe.”

Szeto was taking a question from a Taman Sri Nibong resident, who identified himself as Chan. The man had cited the concerns raised by Penang Forum about the tunnelling for PIL1.

“I was shocked to hear that we have to build tunnels and it will cause the Air Itam Dam to burst.

“Do we have no advanced technology for blasting tunnels? We have driven through the tunnels in Kuala Lumpur and Perak for so many years.

“Those who raised this concern, please don’t scare us. I would like the state to explain how the tunnels here will be built,” said Chan, who said that he looked forward to the PTMP projects.

The 19.5km PIL1 project, 70% of which are hill tunnels through Penang Hill, Paya Terubong, and Sungai Ara, has been much criticised by Penang civil society groups, especially Penang Forum, which wants the highway cancelled.

The civil group had previously pointed out that the PIL1 EIA report lacked a proper risk analysis on whether the tunnelling would impact the hills.

It said the EIA however did mention that areas intersecting with fault lines were “highly fractured and vulnerable to collapse” and this could damage work under construction and existing nearby structures like condominiums, the Kek Lok Si Temple, the Air Itam Dam and the Bukit Bendera complex.

Penang Forum had raised concerns several times about the safety of the earth dam, which is not far from where the tunnelling will be done for a section of PIL1.

To the criticism by Penang Forum and some others on the PTMP proposing to build highways on the island, Szeto said there must be a balance between public transport and roads.

He said Penang Forum’s presentation had shown photos of terrible traffic jams in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, but the cities still had many thousands of miles of high-speed rail and LRT.

“Yet, traffic jams still happen there. People will still buy cars. You have no choice.

“That is why all governments will have to build railways and highways at the same time. They always have this 40:60 mode of sharing.

“Penang Forum’s proposal is very good if everyone stops buying cars and only uses the bus or BRT. Their system, from what I see in general, requires there to be no cars and then everything will work,” he said.

The PTMP proposes the PIL1, Penang Undersea Tunnel, and three major roads on the island, as well as the upgrading of roads on the mainland.

It also proposes a light rail transit (LRT) from Komtar to Bayan Lepas and another linking the island and the mainland; monorails covering Ayer Itam, Tanjung Tokong, Raja Uda, and Bukit Mertajam (on the mainland); trams, and a BRT.

There is also a proposed cable car (sky cab) project linking the island and the soon-to-be completed Penang Sentral transport hub. – September 30, 2018.