KUANTAN: The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project's Kuantan Tunnel, which achieved a tunnelling breakthrough in October last year, will be fully completed by the end of April.
The 2.8km tunnel located in Jabor, near here, is the longest among the ECRL tunnels in Section B (Dungun-Mentakab), which also includes the 1.1km Paka Tunnel and 871m Dungun Tunnel, both in Terengganu.
Malaysian Rail Link (MRL) regional construction manager (Section 4 and 5) Wan Kamal Wan Embong said the Kuantan Tunnel breakthrough was completed on Oct 17 last year, some two months ahead of the schedule.
"The tunnel completion date is scheduled on April 27. Kuantan Tunnel passes through both Pahang and Terengganu with 976m of the tunnel's length in Pahang while the remaining 1,890m in Terengganu," he told reporters during a media trip to the Kuantan Tunnel here yesterday.
The drilling and blasting work for the Kuantan tunnel project which began on Oct 7, 2019, adopts the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which is the world's most widely used underground construction method. Kuantan Tunnel has an average height of 11.89m and width of 13.26m.
The project utilised the Swedish-manufactured double-arm jumbo drilling machine, with tunnelling work commencing from both directions, to meet in the middle.
On the challenges to bore the tunnel, Wan Kamal said MRL ensured all the workers strictly complied to the safety aspects and conditions set by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH).
"The tunnel construction was defined as working in a confined space so we had to ensure proper ventilation and control gas emissions inside the tunnel which might pose a threat to the workers. At the height of the project, 177 workers were on duty," he said, adding safety issues were given utmost priority during the blasting works.
It was previously reported that closed-circuit television cameras were installed at the construction site, including inside the tunnel, to monitor the workers' movement and ensure safety.
On the overall progress of ECRL, Wan Kamal said the 665km rail project was 40 per cent completed and was progressing smoothly according to schedule to meet its Dec 2026 completion.
The 210km Dungun-Mentakab main line is also known as Section B while the other sections of the stretch include Kota Baru to Dungun (Section A) and Mentakab to Port Klang (Section C).
The ECRL, launched in 2017, will traverse the east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang through to the Klang Valley.