History
In 2001 the Government sought proposals for a solution that would allow a typical flood of three to six hours’ duration to occur without flooding the city centre. A tunnel that would allow floods to bypass the centre was one way of achieving this, providing it was coupled with temporary storage facilities to keep flows downstream of Kuala Lumpur within the capacity of the river channel. A group led by Gamuda engaged SSP, a large Malaysian consultant engineering firm, and Mott MacDonald UK to develop proposals for a tunnel with holding ponds at upstream and downstream ends of the tunnel.
Construction of the tunnel began in 25 November 2003. Two Herrenknecht's Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) from Germany were used, including "Tuah" on north side and "Gemilang" on south side. Gusztáv Klados was the senior project manager of the project.
On 11 December 2003, the 13.2 m diameter Mixshield TBM, Tuah, completed a 737 m section after 24 weeks of excavation. By the end of January 2004, Tuah would start a second drive covering a distance of 4.5 km to Kampung Berembang lake. The motorway sections on the SMART system was officially opened at 3:00PM, 14 May 2007, after multiple delays.
Meanwhile, the stormwater sections on the SMART system began operations at the end of January 2007.
As of July 18, 2010 the SMART system has prevented seven potentially disastrous flash floods in the city centre, having entered its first mode 3 operation only weeks after the opening of the motorway.
Read more about this topic: SMART Tunnel
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)