CHANT legal adviser Yan Lee said while it was commendable that the state was quick to explain the mishap, there was no naming and shaming as was done in previous incidents of a similar nature.
“I do not recall the government saying who exactly is responsible for this collapse. We need to look into this,” he said at a press conference today.
He was referring to a 5km bypass road called the “Paya Terubong Paired Road” undertaken by the city council and two private developers to connect Lebuhraya Thean Teik in Bandar Baru Air Itam to Lebuh Bukit Jambul in Bayan Lepas, via Bukit Kukus.
At 8.30pm last Thursday, a crane operator laying a steel structure to form the road designed to rest on the elevated column apparently lost control, swinging into the other laid beams and causing them to fall down the valley.
The columns holding up the 600m elevated portion are reported to be the tallest in the country, measuring up to 54m from the pile cap up. The portion is undertaken by the Penang Island City Council.
Eleven of the 14 concrete beams, measuring 25m each, tumbled down. The authorities have ordered the RM530 million project to be put on hold pending a safety audit.
The project was supposed to be completed next year but the completion date was pushed to 2020 after the incident.
PWD ought to play a bigger role in Penang road building
Lee said in view of the incident, the Public Works Department (PWD) ought to play a bigger role in supervising and advising major road projects in the state.
He said the PWD should be roped in to supervise the highways and other superstructures planned for Penang via its transport master plan (PTMP).
Lee said the Department of Safety and Health, too, must be involved.
“The roads built in the country are often built to meet PWD standards and requirements. They are the go-to people. Why aren’t they involved when they are the experts?” he asked.
Lee also raised concerns over the roads being planned under the PTMP, questioning the state’s ability to maintain the roads once complete.
He said while the onus on maintaining the highways and roads fell under the purview of the city council after completion, their competence to do so was suspect.
“Are the authorities prepared to cope with the immense workload in maintaining and monitoring all these extra roads? Are they ready to monitor everything and enforce the rules?”
Under the PTMP, an estimated 70km of elevated roads are planned to be built in the state.
Structure plan worries
Meanwhile, Lee said the draft 2030 Penang Structure Plan (2030 PSP) rules on hill site development were not clear and were open to exploitation.
He said while the ban on hillside development stayed, the way the rule was worded was a key concern.
Lee said previously works were not allowed on sites located on areas more than 76m above sea level “and/or” slopes greater than 25 degrees in gradient.
“But now, in the latest draft structure plan, the words ‘and or’ (dan atau) have been changed to just ‘and’ (dan).
“This narrows the prohibition to only sites which fulfil both these two criteria, i.e. higher than 76m above sea level and steeper than 25 degrees gradient.
“What if the site is higher than 76m above sea level but less than 25 degrees in gradient? Would development on such sites be allowed?”
The 2030 PSP is the Penang government’s blueprint on how it will utilise land and space in the state. It is on display until Nov 19 in select places to gain public feedback before being ratified.
The 2030 PSP is part of a federal law which requires all states to come up with a structure plan.
It outlines the development plans for the state in the next 10 years and will affect density and where homes can be built, among others.
The plan is renewable every five years. However, the last gazetted PSP was in 2007 and still in use today. There were several reviews of the 2007 PSP, but these were not gazetted.
Plans to introduce a new 2020 PSP never took off. With just two more years to 2020, a 2030 PSP was introduced.
Typically, after a structure plan is gazetted, local plans are developed for each municipality or city council area. Once gazetted, development will be restricted to allowable areas under the local plans.