GEORGE TOWN, Dec 1 ― It is misleading and pointless to compare the newly-completed Rawang Bypass with Penang’s proposed RM7.5 billion Pan Island Link (PIL 1) Highway, state exco Chow Kon Yeow said today.
The local government, traffic management and flood mitigation committee chairman said in a statement that the specifications for both highways were too different to be compared.
“Comparing dissimilar projects between PIL 1 Highway and the Rawang Bypass is highly misleading because these are two different projects with vastly different design, features, engineering and social conditions,” he said in a statement issued today.
He said it is a futile exercise for a cost-per-km comparison when both projects are essentially not like-for-like from an engineering point of view.
Chow’s statement was in response to comments by political analyst Lim Sian See that the Rawang Bypass was less than half the price of a normal paired road in Penang and six times cheaper than PIL 1 Highway.
The Rawang Bypass is only 9km with only 2.7km elevated structure compared to PIL 1 Highway’s 20km with 8km of tunnels and 10km of elevated structure built over difficult terrain and six complicated interchanges.
Chow said the estimated cost of RM7.5 billion for PIL 1 included land acquisition, construction cost and other costs such as design and supervision while he questioned Rawang Expressway’s RM628 million costs included land acquisition and other costs.
“PIL 1 Highway is the first of its kind in Malaysia with a combination of elevated structure and tunnels and there were significant engineering and social challenges posed by site conditions,” he said.
He pointed out Rawang Bypass only had two interchanges and 6.3km was built on ground with no tunnels.
He then compared site challenges where PIL 1 passes through entirely heavily-built up and hilly areas while Rawang Bypass is a shorter stretch that passes through predominantly suburban or rural areas and short stretch of hilly area with less encumbrances.
The PIL 1 Highway will have minimal embankment to preserve Penang’s hills while the Rawang Bypass involved significant hill cutting totalling 23.6ha.
Chow stressed that the estimated cost of RM7.5 billion for PIL 1 was only based on preliminary studies carried out for the Penang Transport Master Plan’s (PTMP) Request For Proposal (RFP) submission.
“The estimated cost of PIL 1 from the RFP is not the confirmed project cost until Work Package Contractors are appointed through open tender,” he said.
He said the open tender is a competitive and transparent process so if the total bids amount to lesser than the estimated costs, the savings goes back to the state government and the people.
“This is different from turnkey projects where the construction cost is finalised between the asset owner and contractor before construction so any cost savings during construction goes back to the turnkey contractor,” he said.
He welcomed constructive comments on the delivery of the PTMP.
He reminded detractors that comments made without thorough fact-checking or understanding will only give an incomplete picture to the public and undermines the state government’s efforts to improve and mitigate severe traffic congestion in the state.
