KUCHING: The Works Ministry will give due consideration to the maintenance required from Jalan Simpang Lapangan Terbang Sibu to Sibu City Centre during the approval of allocations under the upcoming periodic maintenance programme.
In stating this, its minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi however pointed out that the approval for maintenance work on the proposed location is subject to a priority list prepared by the Public Works Department (PWD) Sarawak.
Nevertheless, he stated that from January to May this year, his ministry had patched 182 potholes on the said 54.70 km road as a short term solution dealing with the potholed roads in the area.
“Meanwhile, for the roads that are badly damaged due to the weak pavement structure, maintenance works have been carried out under the Pavement Periodic Maintenance programme with a maintenance allocation of RM12.5 million.
“Moreover, my ministry has introduced a new method in road pavement, which is the use of specialty mix in the pavement such as Geopoly Mattress and Super Fiber Mix (SFM) aimed at increasing the strength of the road structure and increasing the life of the road pavement,” he said during question time at Dewan Rakyat sitting Tuesday.
On another matter, Nanta disclosed that his ministry has received a proposal to upgrade Jalan Ulu Oya from one lane to two lanes from the traffic light intersection at Batu 5 Jalan Lapangan Baru Sibu to Batu 12 intersection (Jalan Persekutuan), Sibu from the Sarawak government under the fourth rolling plan of the 12th Malaysia Plan.
He explained that PWD is capable of allocating funds for the construction and improvement of roads while his ministry is only an implementing agency.
“Any allocation of funds is channelled through the central agency and this fund is channelled subject to the government’s current financial availability and ability as well as the priority of project applications applied for by the state government,” he said.
