Environmentally friendly

AS PILING works for the RM4.5bil second Penang Bridge project starts picking up, steps are being taken to ensure mud-dredging of the seabed in the area do not pollute the environment.State Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Com-mittee chairman Phee Boon Poh said mud dredged along the bridge’s alignment between Batu Maung on the island and Batu Kawan in Seberang Prai, was carefully disposed about nine nautical miles southwest of Pulau Kendi.“The Penang Mud Disposal Special Technical Committee picked this off-shore site, which has a depth of 30m,” he said in an interview on Friday. He said the state executive council approved the site, adding that the mud disposed there would not affect the area’s fishing and nearby tourism industries.Phee said the sea, which was merely a metre deep in some spots along the bridge alignment, had to be deepened to enable the movement of barges transporting piles to the project site.

A barge crane lifting a boat used for transporting workers and material for the project.He said Bayan Lepas assem- blyman Syed Ameruddin Syed Ahmad raised concerns at the recent state assembly sitting that mud sedimentation from the dredging work could be seen along the banks near Teluk Kumbar.“The DOE investigated the matter and found that there was no illegal mud dumping from the project along the particular stretch,” he said.Phee assured that project contractor and the Malaysian Maritime enforcement agency were closely monitoring all dredging work in the area.The Department of Environment (DOE) which approved the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, he said, also conducted regular air and sea surveillance on the site.“The DOE has even requested the contractor to use an automatic identification system on all of its 14 barges used to transport mud to keep track of its activities via online and Global Positioning System (GPS),” he said.

The quarters-cum-site office for the Penang Second Link Project is moored about 500 metresoff Pulau Aman, Penang.State Public Works, Utilities and Transportation Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng said dredging works at the site would continue so long as the barges needed to ferry the piles to the designated spots to lay them.“The second bridge project is progressing well and is on schedule. So far about 100-odd piles have been laid in the sea,” he said.Lim said the contractor had also docked a gigantic floating operations centre-cum-workers quarters about 500 metres off Pulau Aman to facilitate the deploying of small barges to the project site.The company in charge of laying the bridge’s foundation, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd, had in March said that the project was about 10% complete and that piling work started in February.It said the piling and dredging work involved more than 350 workers, 100 of whom were locals.Scheduled for completion by May 2012, the 22.5km-long second link, of which 17km will be built over the sea, is targeted at reducing the traffic volume on the Penang Bridge by half.