Monday, August 04, 2008

MRR2 Re-paired


Good News! MRR2 has been re-paired!

The concrete will not fall anymore and the road is safe for traffic.

See - the traffic is flowing down-under! It's safe!

We do not know how much it has cost the government this time for the re-pair undertaken. I hope it is not $70m again.

Anyway, the Crossbeam looks nice and environmental friendly.

Deputy Director-General of Public Works I Datuk Mohamad Husin said in a statement today that preliminary works are to begin tomorrow on the cracks which have appeared on Pier 28. The decision was reached at a meeting of Public Works Department (JKR) experts, representatives of the consultant and the contractor here today.

BTW, Datuk Mohamad Husin was the Ketua Pengarah Cawangan Jalan when the repair work was implemented, and he was the Superintendent Officer in-charge of the repair works carried out by Bridgex Sdn Bhd and supervised by German Leonhardt Andra & Partner, the expert structural repair consultant. He should have a better understanding of the current problem as well as the historical database of the repair and strengthening works done at that time. He is the best person to know why it is failing.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The best person to know why it is failing is Sami Threequartervalue, he can consult God.

tigasuku

Anonymous said...

The best person to know why it is failing is Sami Threequartervalue, he can consult God.

tigasuku

Anonymous said...

The Pee am says that if u wash your hands before u eat your food everytime, then u will not get stomache.. U understand...

Anonymous said...

the traffic above is still closed, but anyway, good to know that it can be fixed so fast.

that's the malaysia boleh spirit. no need to german engineers.

even if it's a half-past six solution. at least we prove to the world that we can think out-of-the-box.

Anonymous said...

aiyah.. how some these people can't even build a solid beam structure.

just learn from singapore, they got hundreds of beam for their mrt tracks.

last year, a van crash head on into one of the beam, and no only is the beam standing, but it just suffer some for superficial scratch only. can't even see it from the newspaper picture.

Anonymous said...

please lar, don always kompare with sgpura, they even have that nicoll highway collapse ......

Anonymous said...

Denzook,

Then who else to compare with ? At least you won\'t find mistake after mistake in S\'pore and RM70mil also not enough after the first mistake. Who\'s money do you think is being wasted ?

Amazingly, I don\'t see any heads rolling or anyone accepting responsibility.

Fed-up

Monsterball said...

It looks to me all they have done is wrap the cantilever structure in green netting so any concrete spalling off will not crash down to injure people or damage property.

The spalling is likely a sign of localised over-stress on parts of the structure.
If nothing else is done, the crack area may grow, or even, God forbid, end up as a catastrophic failure.

Typical Bolehland mentality - just treat the surface symptoms.

My advice is - if you can help it - don't use the MRR2 - either the elevated highway or the road underneath.

Anonymous said...

Please do something for our safety.. Please do investigation on that stupid contractor..

Anonymous said...

sorry, let me compare again with singapore.

for the nicole highway collapse, inviduals were identified, and 2 or more people was sacked due to negligience, including company directors.

the contractor was also penalised, a japanese company i think, and they were forced to pay penalty in millions. singapore govt didn't foot a cent, and the company got de-merited for bad safety standard. So it will be harder for them to get govt tender in future.

ok, compare with malaysia and see who pays the bills, and whose head got chopped? it is us, the taxpayer that got screwed again and again.

if you don't compare with singapore, i don't think we can compare with any other countries anywhere.

there is no other places that would have tolerated such poor standard than in bolehland, the land of all possibilities.

Anonymous said...

Denzook,

i guess you don't realise that nobody is perfect.

singapore is not perfect, so is US and UK or Germany. engineering disaster happens all the time, see Discovery Channel, they even have series just based on this events.

How many bridges collapes in US? perhaps a dozen. how many boeing plane fell from the sky, you think they are all caused by terrorist?

Just take a look at the discovery channel 'enginnering disaster' and you know what i mean. When such an event occur, you can see that they assemble a team of expert, and they run through all the details, make recommendation and prevent future happening again. That what the shows is all about, very detail and very good.

It is not that accident cannot happened, but it is what do you do after it happens? Other countries, including Singapore, US, and etc make sure it will never happen again.

In malaysia, we call it 'will of god', apa boleh buat? we cannot go against god right?

Cheers-man.

Anonymous said...

Denzook,

i guess you don't realise that nobody is perfect.

singapore is not perfect, so is US and UK or Germany. engineering disaster happens all the time, see Discovery Channel, they even have series just based on this events.

How many bridges collapes in US? perhaps a dozen. how many boeing plane fell from the sky, you think they are all caused by terrorist?

Just take a look at the discovery channel 'enginnering disaster' and you know what i mean. When such an event occur, you can see that they assemble a team of expert, and they run through all the details, make recommendation and prevent future happening again. That what the shows is all about, very detail and very good.

It is not that accident cannot happened, but it is what do you do after it happens? Other countries, including Singapore, US, and etc make sure it will never happen again.

In malaysia, we call it 'will of god', apa boleh buat? we cannot go against god right?

Cheers-man.

Maverick SM said...

Tigasuku,

Samy won't know the fault. JKR knows.

Denzook,

Both are problem of negligence: Nicoll Highway collapse was due to human error and the contractor is heavily penalized.

The MRR2, nobody is penalized and the govt used taxpayers money to save the contractor.

That's your good comparison.

Kittykat46,

The JKR had called back Leonhardt Andra & Partner to study the defects and recommend further actions. The safety netting was a temporary measure to tell the public that it is safe. It is sandiwara - a show piece which basically helps to catch any debris from falling.

Tangansotong,

Your safety is fine; no debris will fall; the bridge won't collapse.

Anonymous said...

Hah, Handyplast ;)

Patch patch patch patch.

Actually, I see 5 tonnes lorry take the MRR2 countless time.

And you are lucky to be on the spot, sharing the MRR2 with the lorry, you feel the vibration.

That's why I don't believe the bullshit on "design flaw". CAD will tell you all the possible f*ck up. If the modified design that "save material" only allow 2.5 tonnes of load, it will be miracle if the bridge sustain the abuse of heavy vehicles.

So far, the government avoid mentioned the maximum load of the beam.

seefei said...

should assemble a team of experts to look into the problem. identify the cause and go after the responsible party. only then similar incident will not happen again.

Monsterball said...

The last Structural Mechanics exam I took was more than 15 years ago, and I have not been a practitioner since, so I'm a bit rusty, but you never forget the fundamentals.

A two-sided cantilever structure like the MRR 2, supporting concrete girders out to the sides, exerts a tremendous bending force right at the centre, where the upright pillar stands. The bottom part of the beam would be in compression - no problem for reinforced concrete. The Top part would be subject to extreme tension forces.

Its the job of the Reinforced concrete, usually with pre- or post-tensioned steel bars to take up the load.

I can see from the pictures the concrete is peeling off right at the point where the stress is maximum.

This scares me - this is no "cosmetic" cracking. Never mind JKR says the structure is safe.

This isn't rocket science, you know. With modern CAD systems, built in with Finite Element Analysis, the level of the stresses and the required strength of the beam can be calculated quite accurately.

Its just criminal how this "weak" structure got designed and build.

Why hasn't anybody been fired over this ?

Maverick SM said...

Kittykat46,

You did a great structural analysis.

But you fail in your observatory analysis.

The peeling off component is not the original RC structure; it is the carbon-fibre used to strengthen the concrete and it is pealing off due largely to the impact of loading and vibration as can be observed.

As such, it is likely that the repair specialist had failed in their job.

FYI the workers used by the repair specialists are Indons.

Moo_t,

I like your analogy - Handyplast! Ya it's handyplasted by carbon-fibre which is a composite material and should not have peeled off.

See Fei,

We already have a team of experts but who is going to listen to them?

Khun Pana aka johanssm said...

Nobody blames the maintenance crews?
Things must be be look after as well as periodic checking.
But here in Malaysia we only do the "checking" after things falls into pieces.Means Bodohwi isn't the only person sleeping on the job, others as well.
A good case of leadership by example.

Maverick SM said...

Khun Pana,

This is not an equipment which needs servicing periodically.

It is expected that the carbon-fibre strengthening is in itself a proven technology and should not have such problem. It's not maintenance form of works. But it surely would be good if there is some inspection done.