MRR2: The forgotten Heroes!

S.O.S. Letter to Ministry of Works in 2004

Cadangan Projek Jalan Lingkaran Tengah II – Pakej 11 (MRR2)
Conclusion and Recommendation, concerning the Cracks in Crossheads

The longitudinal cracks are not a negligible problem of torsion during construction.

The lack of transverse reinforcement is a safety risk for the final stage.

The calculated safety factor is far below 1.0.

Internal redistributions of forces and alternative load paths due to yielding of the reinforcement, intensively cracking and plastification of compression zones of the concrete prevented a collapse so far.

The structure is not stable.

Emergency and safety measures should urgently be undertaken. deformation measurement and installation of strain gages at transverse reinforcement is recommended.

Please inform your client about our serious concerns.

best regards

Markus Maier
Leonhardt, Andra & Partner

The above is the letter from the German Consultant to our Malaysian authority.

Did you all know how serious it was at that time in 2004? This letter was written to our govt in August 2004.

The Government did not treat it as a matter of crisis. It took the govt until February 2006 to decide to take action. They didn't care about preventing the possibility of catastrophic failure as reported by Dr Robert L. Vollum of Halcrow. They don't care about thousands of people that will be dead of this catastrophic failure occurs.

Only after Dr Wahid was appointed as the Director-General of PWD did he pushed for the repair and remedial work to be completed within 3 months.

The group of JKR engineers together with the workers worked 24 hours each day for more than 90 days. They work in 2 shifts - 12 hours each shift to meet the target set by PWD.

They did complete the repair works, all within 3 months. Samy Vellu was surprised how they managed to do it. But he never said a word of appreciation until today.

Look at the pictures below:

These pictures were taken at 3am in the middle of the night.

Each night the German senior engineer from Leonhardt, Andra & Partner (LAP) together with the JKR senior management and JKR engineers would meet at the project site to discuss the works schedule, the details and the problems encountered. More than 90 litres of grout was pump into the concrete beams to grout the understrength porous concrete.

Where were you at 3am? Were was Samy at 3am? You may be surprised that the D-G of JKR was there almost every night around 3am with the workers at MRR2 site.

These are the people who work 24 hours a day for 90 days to repair the MRR2. They completed the works in 90 days.

What were the recognition for these people?

Why was the govt not thankful and appreciative of their commitment, contribution and sacrifices.

They were living for 3 months without spending time with their family members. They had to abandoned their wife, children and parents so as to ensure that the MRR2 repair works are completed within the 3 months.

And at the end, there was not even a word of thanks from the Works Minister Samy Vellu nor from the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Today, all of them lives in obscurity after serving the nation.

The PM and DPM showed tremendous concerned for Saiful; but they didn't even cared for the a group of people who had sacrificed for the nation - these were the heroes who work hard to prevent a catastrophe from occurring.

Note:

The flyover is safe. Only Pier 28 has some problem with the plastic straps which are used to encased the grouts used to seal the pre-stressed wire-ropes which provides the necessary reinforcements to strengthen the crossbeams which had failed. The repair for the defective works are in progress and the consulting engineers from LAP have inspected the defects and recommended the necessary repair.

Incidentally, Pier 28 was the first Pier that was repaired in 2006. As such, there may had been some initial problem due to the learning process as the repair contractor is not experienced in this methodology of structural strengthening works. Immediately after observing the contractor's weakness, JKR utilized a team of senior engineers to closely monitor the quality of works and ensured that the remaining works meets the strict specified requirements.