Consortium Zenith BUCG comprises a joint venture between Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd and China Railway Construction Co Ltd, together with Beijing Urban Construction Group, Sri Tinggi Sdn Bhd and Juteras Sdn Bhd. The Penang state government formally signed a preliminary agreement with the Consortium to carry out feasibility study and detailed design.
On August 16, the Consortium awarded the feasibility study and design to the joint-venture (Zenith PMC and Astral Supreme Construction Sdn Bhd). Why award the feasibility study and design to them? How can an inexperienced construction company conduct a full range of constructability assessments, alignment studies, feasibility studies, preliminary design activities and provide cost estimates and schedules for project development and construction? What are the in-house resources that Astral Supreme can harness to develop geo-technical and laboratory testing programmes, conduct geophysical surveys including cross-hole sonic logging, and conduct instrumentation monitoring for quality assurance?
Does the company have the software application to do NATM design and numerical modeling, including 2D and 3D analyses, and structural analysis and design? Does the company have the expertise in dynamic load analysis and grouting and ground modification? How well-versed is the company in preparation of tunneling plans and specifications? How will the company provide cost estimation? Does the company have expertise in the development of reentry safety and ventilation procedures?
The feasibility study should not be conducted as just paper work. According to tunneling expert, the feasibility study should cover the following activities: A comprehensive ground investigation programme has to be carried out. Such a programme should include additional geophysical investigations, probe drilling and core drilling.
It is also important to locate major fault and fracture zones and to investigate the depths to competent bedrock adjacent to the tunnel portals. It should be recognised that if the tunnel is made of two uni-direction tunnel tubes, the width of the two tubes is close to 50 metres and the investigation need to cover a large area. In order to further investigate the existent, strike, and dip of fault and fracture zones it is also necessary to carry out geophysical investigations (resistivity and refraction seismic investigations) on a certain distance, and parallel to the planned tunnel alignment one line on each side of the tunnel. Adjacent to the tunnel portals, it is also necessary to make similar studies on transverse lines.
In order to calibrate the geophysical investigations it is necessary to drill some core holes along the tunnel alignment. Core holes should also be drilled in order to investigate the conditions of anticipated fault and fracture zones. It is also necessary to locate the level of competent rock adjacent to the tunnel portals. Besides the geophysical investigations a comprehensive drilling program is necessary. The drillings should consist of percussion drilling and core drilling.
As core drilling is expensive, a combination of percussion drilling and geophysical logging should be considered as a complement. In critical areas, one investigation hole per 10m2 is foreseen. Contrary to previous drilling, the new investigation holes should reach below the planned tunnel floor. In order to penetrate more fractures (fracture zones are normally dripping close to vertical) and also to investigate the conditions, anticipated fault and fracture zones-inclined core holes approximately 70 degrees, should be used.
Near the tunnel portals it is also recommended to drill near the horizontal (30-40 degree) core holes along the tunnel alignment. In the core holes it will be necessary to perform water loss measurements (Lugeon tests) on a routine bases in order to evaluate the hydro-geological conditions of the bedrock. Cores from the tunnel level should be subject to uni-axial compressive strength test and cover existing rock types. Rock stress measurements in any of the core holes should also be considered. Excavation of an investigation trench down to the tunnel level should be considered in connection to one of the tunnel portals as a complement to the investigations and drillings outlined above.
Astral Supreme Construction with its limited exposure is surely unable to carry out by itself the feasibility study as outlined above.. It will end up acting as a middleman appointing a real tunneling expert to carry out the tasks. Now the strange question here is what are the rational to appoint an unknown and inexperienced company to do the job with profit guarantee of minimum RM15 million.
This “middleman” company that does not bring any value to business transactions involving the Penang state government smacks of corruption by proxy. If we are greatly concerned with corruption by proxy, this unhealthy practice of using a middleman should be eliminated without hesitation. Current laws may allow for the existence of middlemen, but for Lim Guan Eng who seems to champion against corruption, such unhealthy practices should not take place at all in his pet project, the Penang undersea tunnel project.
I hereby call upon the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Paul Low, to look seriously into this issue and refer it to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for further investigation, if he is serious about corruption by proxy.
* Ong Eu Soon reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
No comments:
Post a Comment