Call on Nadma to provide more Bailey bridges for Sarawak as standby facilities in emergencies
KUCHING (Aug 6): Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas urged the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to provide more modular steel bridges (Bailey bridges) to Sarawak to be kept as standby facilities.
He said this was crucial so the state government is prepared to respond in the event of bridges or roads being cut off or collapsed during disasters.
'To date, Sarawak through the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has received three Bailey bridges from Nadma – one was received earlier in January in Miri, which was installed at Sungai Bale, Long Banga in Bario and today we received two units, which will be installed in Baram.
'These bridges are helpful in our efforts to repair bridges that were damaged last year,' he said in a press conference after the 'Handover Ceremony of Modular Steel Bridges' and 'Launch of the Senari Port Vehicle Yard' at Senari Port here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Uggah said over 200 bridges and routes across Sarawak have been identified as needing repair or replacements, with 19 projects already tendered and 10 more to be tendered under Public Work Department (JKR) and Ministry of Infrastructure and Port Development (MIPD) programmes.
He said these locations included Baram, Kakus, Skrang, several locations in Belaga and Murum, and the identification process came after a 15-hour journey from Miri to Bario to assess the condition of bridges in the area.
'Many of the bridges, especially temporary ones built by logging companies in the past, are no longer structurally sound and are now in a very dilapidated state.'
Uggah said the state government had decided to take over village roads, former logging roads and some active timber roads in the area to convert them into state roads, so that Malaysia Road Records Information System (Marris) allocations can be used for maintenance.
Also present were MIPD deputy ministers Datuk Aidel Lariwoo and Dato Majang Renggi; Deputy Minister in the Premier's Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala; and Nadma director-general Datuk Abdul Halim Hamzah. bailey bridge Douglas Uggah Embas emergency situations Nadma
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