KUCHING: The area surrounding the proposed reconstruction of Satok Suspension Bridge here, alleged to have been tilting to one side has been closed temporarily to enable a more detailed investigation, the state Public Works Department (PWD) said today.
The department, in a statement today, said a series of static load tests had been conducted on the bridge located at Satok/Kubah Ria (Matang) area crossing over Sungai Sarawak last Thursday with the aim to check the overall deflection under different loading conditions.
The statement admitted that initially the anchor block at the Kubah Ria side was slightly tilted when the static load tests commenced by loading the bridge to simulate 800 people on it.
“As for the anchor block on the Satok side, there was no movement recorded. After monitoring for further two hours with readings taken every 15 minutes, no further movements of both anchor blocks were detected.
“The loading was reduced by half (to simulate 400 people on one half of the bridge) and readings were again taken for the next 12 hours. It was recorded that there was no further movement of both anchor blocks and subsequently, all the loads were removed and the monitoring of the anchor block is still ongoing,” it said.
The statement noted that any findings and remedial action will be announced as soon as the detailed study is concluded.
At present, the physical progress of the construction works is 94.52 per cent, which is ahead of schedule by 7.68 per cent. – Bernama
