Wan Junaidi: Project to replace eight single-lane bailey bridges along Lundu-Sampadi back on track

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Wan Junaidi (right) pointing to the single-lane bailey bridge at Sungai Rayu during the site visit.

KUCHING: The replacement of all eight single-lane bailey bridges project along the Lundu-Sampadi Road with permanent two-lane concrete bridges is back on track after a three month delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Santubong MP Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that the bridges, which were supposed to be delivered in November next year, got a three months extension due to the Covid-19 intervention.

“This extension was officially given to the contractor, and I’ll consider that they will be delivered on time,” he said during a site visit to the bridge project at Sungai Rayu today.

He said once the bailey bridges were replaced with permanent reinforced concrete bridges, the bailey bridges will be demolished.

The eight bridges, which cost RM96 million and began construction in November 2018, are located along 36km of the Lundu-Sampadi Road up to the Rambungan ferry point. Currently, the bridges are 35 per cent completed on average.

For the second project in the area, the construction of the Rambungan bridge costing RM98 million, he said that site clearing has been done and its progress was currently at 5 per cent.

He said that this project and the eight bailey bridge projects were initially under the federal government but due to the change in government and funding retracted, the state government had agreed to fund the projects as part of the coastal road link.

“Due to the change in project funding provider, the project is delayed a bit,” he said.

He said once the bridge was completed, people no longer needed to rely on ferry service to cross the Batang Rambungan, and there would be no more bottle-neck from Kuching, will bring fast paced development for Lundu-Sematan-Telok Melano area.

“I feel quite excited about this bridge and have visited the site here three times. As the Rambungan Bridge engineers are mostly from China, there is a bit of a delay as the contractors cannot come here due to the outbreak,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wan Junaidi reassured the public that projects stopped due to the pandemic would resume soon, as contractors need to submit their standard operating procedures (SOP) for approval before they could resume work.

This was due to government’s orders to stop work during the Covid-19 pandemic to prevent people from falling sick or dying from the disease, and thus the public were urged to be patient.

“This is not by choice. We deny speculations that the projects were stopped due to lack of funding. We have the funds, now we are in the process of selecting contractors, ongoing process, and people cannot go to the sites until their SOPs are approved,” he said in response when about folks in Bau who were unhappy about the stopping of the bridge project in Buso.

“It’s not just there that the project is stopped. Even in my constituency, we have almost 30 RTP (rural transformation project) were stopped due to the MCO (Movement Control Order). We are not out to simply delay the projects, in fact, we want the projects to complete faster,” Wan Junaidi said.