Collapsed wall not built as specified
Posted on | November 27, 2009
By THE STAR
THE recent collapse of the 50m-long gabion wall in Taman Cheras Awana could have been avoided if the Kajang Municipal Council had heeded residents’ warnings.
Unstable: The gabion wall in Taman Cheras Awana collapsed causing much damage.
Several vehicles were flattened in the landslide on Nov 18 because the 4m-high wall was not built according to the design specified by the council’s engineering department.
Councillor Eddie Ng, who brought up the matter by requesting to set aside the agenda for the full board meeting for a few minutes, was told the wall built by the contractor had begun to slant soon after it was built.
However, after conducting preliminary checks on the wall, the department failed to issue a stop-work order and the construction went on.
“Work started on July 6 and the wall was completed on Aug 3. The cost was set at RM181,450 but the council has yet to pay the amount,” MPKj’s new engineering department director Md Noor Mahmud said.
Councillors were further unhappy to hear that the contractor was allowed to proceed although the proposed design was ignored simply because a letter of undertaking assuming public liability was signed.
“Due to this, the contractor is responsible for bearing the cost of clean-up work, building a new wall according to the original design and compensating residents. A full report on the matter will be made available soon,” said Md Noor.
He said the contractor was experienced in building gabion walls and that the council had yet to appoint a slope consultant from the Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram).
Councillor Lee Learn Eng asked if an independent slope consultant could be engaged instead of getting someone from Ikram as it could be costly.
“For the slope assessment concerning the soil erosion in Taman Bukit Mewah Phase 1, the bill amounted to RM500,000. Although Ikram is semi-government, the cost involved is high,” he said.
PKR party whip Yusof Bachik chaired the meeting in council president Datuk Hasan Nawawi Abdul Rahman’s absence. The prisident is away attending the Selangor Economic Action Council meeting.
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