By ANDREA FILMER
Star
WITH the hum and buzz of Free Industrial Zone factories on one side and sights of the Penang Channel on the other, driving on the southern end of the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway on Penang Island has always been scenic.
But over the last year, more interesting things have been happening.
Near the very end of the expressway in Batu Maung, concrete piers have been emerging in the sea, marking the foundation work for the Second Penang Bridge.
The 292nd and last pier was cast just last Saturday, paving the way for the 24km superstructure to follow suit.
With the completion date for the bridge now expected to be two months ahead of the September 2013 target, excitement is growing on the ground.
General worker Mohd Tarmizi Yazid, 38, said journeys to and from the mainland would be much easier, especially for lorries and cargo freights.
“Things will be so much faster with a bridge on this side (of the island).
“Lorries and cargo vehicles have limited hours to use the first bridge and it has become very congested,” said Tarmizi.
The father of three, whose family has lived in Permatang Damar Laut, Bayan Lepas, for generations, said the price of land was also rising in the south of the island.
“With the bridge, more public facilities are sure to follow and I’ve heard that the price of our land is going up,” said Tarmizi.
Commuters from the mainland are also counting the days until the new link opens.
Penang Seagate Industries (M) Sdn Bhd manufacturing senior engineer Tan Soo Min said the second bridge could not open soon enough for her.
“If the second bridge wasn’t being built, I would sell my house in Simpang Ampat and buy a small apartment on the island.
“I’m so tired of the traffic jams on the current bridge,” said Tan, 31.
She said that currently, the 33km journey from her house to Penang Seagate via the first bridge takes her 50 minutes in the mornings, while return journeys after work take about one-and-a-half hours.
She said even though her journey to work using the second link would be slightly lon- ger than if she used the first bridge, she would take the new bridge as long as the trip was faster.
Tan’s co-worker P. Maran, 47, said the second bridge would provide an alternative for commuters.
Progressing smoothly: Work on the Second Penang Bridge superstructure and cabled-stayed deck is two months ahead of the September 2012 target “I’m excited as there are now two options for people.
“I’ve had many experiences with the first bridge with events putting traffic at a standstill.
“For example, when there was a bomb scare there a few years ago, I had to leave my car overnight in Bayview Hotel Georgetown and take a taxi to the ferry to get home,” said Maran, a production manager who has commuted from Bukit Minyak on the mainland to the island for 18 years.
He said he hoped a good access road would be built to the second link to ensure there were no jams leading up to the new bridge.
Aside from those eager to make use of the Second Penang Bridge, commuters who are nearer the first bridge are also all smiles.
Driver Nasir Udin’s hope is that with the new link, the traffic on the old bridge will be considerably smoother.
“I hope there will be less congestion on the first bridge.
“Now it takes me about 40 minutes by mo-torcycle to reach Batu Maung from Permatang Tok Jaya,” said Nasir, 44.
Fisheries Development Authority Board (LKIM) assistant accountant Manjawati Sam-suddin, 36, said she would use the second link if she heard of any accidents happening on the first bridge.
“Once an accident happens, no matter how minor, semua habis (things are finished). You can be stuck on the bridge for an hour,” she said.
Manjawati, who makes the 112km-round trip journey to Penang island from Sungai Petani every day, added that she hoped the second link, like the first bridge, would offer a reduced toll of RM5.60 (from RM7) for frequent travellers.
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February 1, 2012
Second Penang link to be ready sooner
Star
GEORGE TOWN: The second Penang bridge is 3% ahead of schedule and is expected to be ready by October next year, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said the construction work was proceeding well.
“Although the bridge was expected to be ready in 2014, it is now expected to be completed earlier based on the progress of construction,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
Lim said that according to completion schedule, the progress of construction was supposed to be 67.71% but it had reached 70.7%.
In October last year, Works Minister Datuk Seri Shaziman Abu Mansor had said the bridge was 65% completed and expected to be ready earlier than its November 2013 deadline.
He expressed confidence the project would be ready two months earlier than scheduled.
On another matter, Lim said the handing out of white ang pow during Perkasa’s Chinese New Year open house at Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, was an insult to the Chinese community.
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03 November 2011
KUALA LUMPUR - The toll for the Second Penang Bridge has been set at RM8.50 for cars, higher than the RM7 currently charged for the first bridge.
“According to the concession agreement signed on May 12, 2011 between the government and Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd, the toll suggested is RM1.70 for motorcycles and RM8.50 for four-wheeled vehicles,” said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Awang Adek.
The Second Penang Bridge is due to be completed by 2013.
This is a slight reduction from figures announced by Datuk Seri Najib Razak last year.
The prime minister had said that toll rates for both bridges will be set at RM1.90 for motorbikes and RM9.40 for cars once the second bridge is completed until the first bridge’s concession agreement ends in 2018.
This led the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Penang government to start an anti-toll hike campaign.
The Malaysian Insider reported last month that Putrajaya had forgone a cheap US$800 million (RM2.6 billion) loan from China to build the Second Penang Bridge, and has instead asked the state-owned Bank Pembangunan to further underwrite the construction of the 24km bridge.
The interest rate for the loan was set at three per cent for 20 years.
A source said that Bank Pembangunan has been told to give out a further loan apart from the RM1.7 billion issued to the joint venture between the Beijing-owned China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Ltd and UEM Builders Bhd, which is owned by state asset manager Khazanah Nasional Berhad.
The Second Penang Bridge is managed by the Finance Ministry’s Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd and has been fraught with issues over a lack of urgency in its construction by the Chinese, who were keen to show their engineering capabilities beyond the Middle Kingdom.
The final figure of RM4.3 billion was agreed upon after the government had to put its foot down and set a benchmark after initial calculations showed that the cost of the project could go as high as RM4.8 billion.
Both UEM and CHEC have argued that the cost of the bridge has increased from RM3.6 billion in 2006 because of the sharp increase in the cost of materials, especially steel.
But Finance Ministry officials insisted that the bridge can be built at a cost of RM4.3 billion with both parties still making a reasonable profit.
- Malaysian Insider
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Work on second Penang bridge project behind time
Star
GEORGE TOWN: Construction work on the second Penang bridge is behind schedule by 3%.
Datuk Dr Ismail Mohamed Taib, the managing director of Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd — the biggest concession holder of the project — said however, that the delay would not affect the September 2013 completion date for the bridge.
“The total project completion stands at 40% and is just a little bit off schedule.
“We are confident that the contractors will be able to catch up (the 3%) in the year’s second quarter.
“These small delays are normal in construction and we have not yet reached a stage where the project is critically delayed,” Dr Ismail said, adding that projects would be considered critically delayed when construction was 20% behind schedule.
He said the construction of the RM4.5bil second bridge comprised five packages, of which only one — Package One by CHEC (China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd) (M) Sdn Bhd —was ahead of schedule.
Dr Ismail said CHEC was moving ahead at between 5% and 10% ahead of their timeline on their construction of the main navigation span and substructure, and foundation works of the approach spans.
He was speaking to reporters after a site visit and briefing for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid.
Azmi, who visited the CHEC office in Batu Maung, the bridge’s mid-span and the UEM casting yard in Batu Kawan, said PAC was visiting the project for a briefing and not an investigation.
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Work on sea portion of second Penang bridge begins
By PRISCILLA DIELENBERG
GEORGE TOWN: Construction has begun on the 16.37km sea portion of the 23km-long second Penang Bridge which will have a middle cable stayed span much like the present Penang Bridge.
The two viewing platforms that formed the “pearl” in the original design have been scrapped.
China Harbour Engineering Company, which was awarded the letter of acceptance on Oct 20 for the first of three packages, began its work yesterday and is scheduled to complete the project by May 7, 2012.China Harbour’s RM2.2bil contract for the first package covers the design and building of the main navigation span, which is a 475m-long cable stayed bridge, and the substructure and foundation works of the 15.9km approach spans.
The bridge will have a dual carriageway with two lanes and a motorcycle lane on each side. Its width will be 29.8m for the approach spans and 35.6m for the main navigation span.
Speed limit has been fixed at 80kph, just as on the present bridge.
China Harbour’s managing director Sun Ziyu said that the RM2.2bil contract was RM100mil lower than the original tender price of RM2.3bil.
He said the main reason for the lower contract was the decision by the project’s special task force in January to do away with viewing platforms.
He said another reason was the final contract allowed for variation of price (VOP) for base material such as fuel, cement and steel, and re-measurement of the piling works.
At the ceremony to mark the commencement of work at the Batu Maung site, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng hoped the construction would be completed ahead of schedule by end of 2011.
Casting yard ‘nearly ready’
By ZULKIFLY MOHAMAD
WORKERS are racing against time to build a RM100mil casting yard in Batu Kawan which will produce segmental box girders for the construction of the RM4.6bil second Penang bridge project.
UEM Group chief operating officer and managing director Datuk Ahmad Pardas Senin said the casting yard on a 20ha site in Batu Kawan was in the advanced stage of completion.
The yard, he said, would be used to produce all the 8,500 girders required to build the part of the bridge spanning 17km across the sea.
Staronline
Thursday July 3, 2008
NIBONG TEBAL: The second Penang bridge will be completed in 2011 as scheduled, and the cost will be RM4.5bil.
UEM Group Berhad managing director and chief executive officer Ahmad Pardas Senin said the commonly quoted figure of RM3.6bil was only for the cost of the construction of the bridge over water.
This did not take into account the RM900mil needed to construct the 7km expressway linking it to the North South Expressway.
Ongoing project: A general view of the casting yard for the second Penang bridge in Batu Kawan Wednesday.
He explained that there was a price fluctuation clause to account for price changes in building materials and it did not necessarily mean that the final cost would be higher than the estimate because the clause took into consideration prices of building materials going up or down.
Ahmad Pardas said he believed that without the fluctuation clause, no organisation would be willing to start any construction because it would definitely be running at a loss.
“We are committed to completing the job by the end of 2011,” he told a press conference at the project site office here, after a site visit with the media yesterday.
He said the cost of building the bridge now stood at RM4.585bil, including RM285mil in development cost.
“The price of steel has increased by 60% and while fuel went up by 40%. The cost of building the bridge has only gone up by 10.4%,” he said.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had last month asked the Federal Government to explain why the cost of the second Penang bridge project had ballooned from RM2.7bil to RM4.5bil within a year, saying that an explanation was necessary because Penangites would eventually have to bear the expense through toll rates.
Ahmad Pardas clarified that the original cost for the whole project was RM3.6bil and not RM2.7bil as reported in the media.
He said work to build the bridge had not stopped since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi officiated at the ground-breaking ceremony in November 2006.
The project is undertaken by UEM and Chinese Harbour Engineering Company, which holds a 51% stake and the rest by UEM.
Ahmad Pardas said UEM would spend RM57mil to acquire about 113ha of land belonging to individuals and the Penang Development Corporation for the project.
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