IPOH: The Works Ministry is monitoring 3,000 slopes classified as high-risk along federal routes nationwide.
Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said this identification is the result of mapping conducted on over 27,000 slope areas in the Peninsula, Labuan, Putrajaya, and Kuala Lumpur.
He said the integrated slope maintenance system, a centralised management system at the Public Works Department (PWD) Slope Engineering branch headquarters, was used to identify these slopes.
"District engineers have been provided with comprehensive information about the listed high-risk slopes and are responsible for conducting regular stability monitoring and taking precautionary measures," said Ahmad after inspecting the progress of the slope repair and rehabilitation project for the FT185 Federal Road (Simpang Pulai - Blue Valley) here, today.
He added that the slope hazard mapping and assessment guidelines have also been launched as part of a comprehensive action plan.
"These guidelines are a component of the strategic pillar of slope hazard and risk mapping, one of the core frameworks in the National Slope Master Plan (PICN) 2009-2023.
"The guidelines have been prepared as a foundation for area-based mapping, produced by the Department of Minerals and Geosciences, and linear-based mapping, produced by PWD," he said.
He also said that the Cabinet has approved extending the PICN 2009, which ended in 2023, to the year 2030.
"These guidelines will serve as a reference document and general guide for mapping work and slope assessments to identify slope hazard and risk levels.
"With these slope hazard and risk mapping and assessment guidelines under the strategic core framework, comprehensive slope inventory data can be produced. Each slope inventory will be analysed to identify hazard and risk levels for each slope," he said.
During his visit to Blue Valley, Ahmad said that the area had been identified early as a high-risk location in the slope hazard and risk mapping document.
He said that a landslide had occurred at Section 44.1 of this road, with an estimated depth of 250 metres and length of 600 metres.
"The RM122 million slope repair work, which began on July 1, 2022, is expected to be completed by December 2025. As of Sept 25, the physical progress has reached 33.31 per cent.
"The scope of work involved in this project includes land surveying, soil investigation, slope stabilisation work using a contiguous bored pile wall with anchors, and rockfill technology used from India," he said.
Pic by Muhammad Zulsyamini Sufian Suri