Collapsed Flyover En Route to KLIA Is Still A Tourism Sight To Behold After Three Years
Auto NewsHow would you feel if you were a tourist visiting Malaysia and saw a collapsed road on your way to the airport and only to returned several years later to find it still under construction?
Well, that's the unfortunate case of the Cyberjaya flyover which was previously reported to be closed on Nov 2012 for repair works and later collapsed in Feb 2013.
According to The Malaysian Insider, the flyover was supposed to be rebuilt eight months after the three weeks of clean up. Last I checked the calendar, its year 2015 already.
Today the neglected bridge is still closed, traffic from Puchong, Cyberjaya, and the ELITE highway are still being diverted around its ruins, and when I was on my way to the airport last week, the area is still being barricaded for construction. Since 2015 is the Malaysia Year of Festivals, is this really what Malaysia wants to promote to our fellow foreign tourists who just landed in KLIA and passed by the amazing roads and absorbing one of their first amazing moments in this amazing tropical land we call home? Won't somebody please think of the children?!
Sinar Harian reported back in April that the flyover is scheduled to be completed in 2016. I think the biggest question here is why is it taking so long? The link was a project by the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) that begun in Oct 2007 and completed two years later and was handed over to Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan (PLUS) Malaysia in March 2012 but these claims were denied by PLUS which stated that PKNS was responsible for the maintenance of the highway.
Carlist contacted the PKNS office earlier today for a deadline on the restoration, but was told the person in charge was away at a meeting and none other staff have details of the project.
An article by The Star in 2014 quoted the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) public relations manager Ishak Hashim saying: “Construction work is expected to start in April 2015 and it will take 12 months to complete.”
He also added: “Soil investigation needs to be completed first before the design of the new bridge and structural work can commence."
Aren't the safety of the highway structure supposed to be evaluated before its construction? If this is the standard timeline of a road restoration and these are the developments of an important interchange in the Malaysian Silicon Valley, what hope do we have for other collapsed highways and potholes around the city?