What is SMART?

SMART is an acronym for Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel, a project under the Federal Government initiated to alleviate the flooding problem in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. The project is implemented through a joint venture pact between MMC Berhad and Gamuda Berhad with the Department of Irrigation And Drainage Malaysia and the Malaysian Highway Authority as the executing government agencies.

HOW DOES SMART HELP?

Studies had indicated that the critical stretch of Sungai Klang between Sg Klang /Sg Ampang confluence and Sg Gombak/ Sg Klang confluence to be flood prone areas and the fact that the river is further constrained by the Jalan Tun Perak Bridge (near Masjid Jamek) which is low, has resulted in the surrounding areas to experience flash floods.

The SMART system will be able to divert large volumes of flood water from entering this critical stretch via a holding pond, bypass tunnel and storage reservoir. This will reduce the flood water level at the Jalan Tun Perak Bridge, preventing spillover.

Other benefits of SMART

The Motorway to Ease Congestion
The motorway tunnel will provide an alternative route for motorists from the Southern Gateway, i.e. KL-Seremban Highway, Federal Highway, Besraya and East-West Link entering and exiting the city centre. This will reduce traffic congestion at the Southern Gateway leading to the city centre. The travel time will be reduced
significantly. For example from the Jalan Istana Interchange-Kampung Pandan the expected travel time is a mere four minutes compared to ten to fifteen minutes using the existing roads.

CONSTRUCTION METHOD
Kuala Lumpur city is sitting on Karstic limestone geology with high ground water table. The Special Features of Karstic limestone include cliffs, pinnacles, cavities, collapsed cavities and sinkholes. Overlying these Karstic limestones is loose alluvium from previous tin mining activities.

Due to the nature of the soil condition, much thought and planning was channeled towards the selection of a construction method that would have minimal negative impact on the geological condition of the soil.

It is known that the tunnel boring machine is the most advanced and cost effective method used in the construction of tunnel in Europe. However, TBMs come in a variety of shapes, sizes, using a variety of technology according to need. For SMART, after much research, study and survey, the Slurry Shield TBM was opted for. This machine is designed to overcome problems of groundwater drawdown which has been identified as the root cause of incidences of sinkhole appearance.

In terms of cost, the slurry shield machine is not different from any other type of TBM but unlike other types, the slurry shield machine is designed to create a pressured shield made up of bentonite and air pressure.

This pressured shield is able to counter balance the pressures of the groundwater and loose soil acting on the face of the boring machine.

TUNNELING

The slurry shield tunnel boring machine consists of four main parts.

The first is the Rotary Cutter Head with tungsten pick bits used for excavation of soil and disc cutters used for the excavation of rock.

The second part of the machine is the Bulkhead located immediately behind the Rotary Cutter Head. This is where the pressured bentonite slurry shield is formed to provide stability during the tunnel excavation.

The third part of this machine consists of hydraulic rams, which are used to propel the machine forward and to keep the tunnel in its right alignment.

The fourth and the last main part of the machine is the tunnel lining erector used to install the pre-cast concrete lining of the tunnel.Other parts complementing the main Special Features are two boogies on rails that house electrical, slurry pumping, ventilation equipment and cable and pipes.

The pre-cast concrete linings for the tunnel are transported continuously to the erector by boogies on rails. These linings are then hoisted and placed in the correct position in the tunnel with the help of vacuum pads attached to hydraulics arms. The arms are ex tended to keep the linings in place while the linings are bolted together.

The void between the excavated ground surface and the linings is immediately filled with cement mortar grout under pressurized conditions to ensure all the voids are fully filled.

For SMART, two Slurry Shield machines are used, both starting from the JKR field area in Jalan Chan Sow Lin. The first machine will head North under Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Desa Pandan before terminating at the pond at Ampang behind
Gleneagles Hospital.

The second machine will head south under the Jalan Chan Sow Lin and the KL-Seremban Highway next to the Sg Besi airfield before terminating at the existing pond in Taman Desa.

The unique feature of this project is the 3 km double-deck motorway within the stormwater tunnel. The operation of the SMART system works on the three- principle mode of operation based on the flood discharge at the Klang River/ Ampang River confluence and the operation status of the motorway.

When the second mode is activated, flood water is diverted into the bypass tunnel in the lower channel of the motorway tunnel and it is important to note, that, up to this stage, the motorway section is still open to traffic.

At the third mode of operation the motorway will be closed to traffic. With extensive and effective monitoring stations, when the third mode of operation is needed, the motorway will be closed to traffic. Sufficient time will be allocated to allow the last vehicle to exit the motorway before the automated water-tight gates are opened to allow flood water to pass through. The motorway will be reopened to traffic within 48 hours after the closure.

Tunnel Safety
Ventilation/ escape shafts at 1km intervals: these powerful air ventilators will constantly renew the air and maintain the air quality within the motorway. To protect the ventilation system during the flooding, the systems consist of a series of shafts each containing an exhaust and fresh air injector. This design enables the fans to be situated outside the SMART tunnel to create a longitudinal flow in the tunnel between the shafts that permits the air in the tunnel to be continuously renewed and to enable extraction of the exhaust fumes. The feature also allows for smoke control in the event of a fire.

Equipped with fire fighting, telecommunication and surveillance equipment at 1 km interval.

PENTOMINIUM

Pentominium is expected to become the most sought afteraddress in the world. The Pentominium project in Dubai will become the “Defined Height of Luxury” and has already won awards in five categories at prestigious CNBC Arabian Property Awards - Best Apartment, Best Development, Best Architecture, Best Property and Best High-rise Architecture in the Arab World.

In a city of superlatives, the 516 metre tall building and its 120 floors will overshadow every other residential development in the world. The building will be iconic, and its residents exceptionally exclusive. You will be living in a piece of history unique among the property for sale in Dubai. Price at RM10,000,000.00 to RM16,000,000.00

The Importance of Design Process

Time to bin industry's lavish habits

• Increase image
• View all images

The increasingly important environmental performance of your building is decided right at the start of the design process. By Mike Barker

It's in the early concept stage that crucial decisions regarding energy and water consumption, construction methods and materials, waste management, maintenance and, eventually, demolition are made.

Of course, there are opportunities to improve performance of your building right the way through design and construction to completion. But incorporating environmental enhancements later on is harder and more expensive. If you start badly you're in trouble.

Delivering environmental quality isn't rocket science. But it requires ownership and drive. Here are some reasons why we should be working at it harder.

Even if your conscience isn't troubled by chucking perfectly good materials away, your wallet should be. The construction industry is the UK's largest consumer of natural resources. More than 400 million tonnes of materials get delivered to site each year. Of these, 60 million tonnes go straight to tip due to over-ordering, damage resulting from poor storage or because of inappropriate ordering.

Add earthworks and demolition into the equation and it's easy to understand how construction, which accounts for 8.3 per cent of UK GDP this year, manages to churn out over a third of the nation's total waste.

Trial projects on which waste minimisation strategies have been put in place have delivered savings of up to 10 per cent on anticipated out-turn costs.

If morality and financial good sense aren't motivation enough to clamp down on waste, next month every project worth over £300,000 will be required to put in place a site waste management plan.

The strength of a plan, setting out waste management and reduction strategies from a project's inception, through its working life, to eventual demolition, is expected to become pivotal in the success or failure of future planning applications. Breach the terms you've agreed in a site waste management plan and you could be facing legal action.

Big companies are increasingly concerned by issues such as corporate social responsibility and sustainability and are starting to demand accommodation that performs well. Sooner than you imagine, commercial rents for environmentally honed buildings will be at a premium.

Need for sustainability

The definition of good environmental performance will in future cover strategies for waste management during use. And it will include maintenance – durability of plant, fixtures and fittings, and ease of access.

The equation between capital cost, cost in use and user benefit is changing, with a significant shift towards user benefit. This is fuelled by changing legislation, increasing energy costs, scarcer resources and our slowly increasing awareness of the need for sustainability.

But to achieve all this, contractors and suppliers need to be brought on board during design to advise on the most economical ways of building; and clients need proof that investing more up-front can deliver longer-term savings.

Innovation requires leadership – and improving environmental quality certainly requires innovation. Designers and contractors need to wake up to the potential for doing things differently and better. And clients need to allow them the freedom to push boundaries when projects are at an early stage.

Mike Barker is head of buildings at Mott MacDonald

World's Biggest Arch Bridge

Dubai to get world's biggest arch bridge

• Increase image
• View all images

The biggest arch bridge in the world is set to be built in Dubai after the design won a major international competition for a sixth crossing over Dubai Creek.

The bridge will have a span of 1.7km and a rise of 205m, making it the largest and tallest spanning arch bridge in the world.

The structural engineering consultant is Schlaich Bergermann & Partners and the architect is Fxfowle. The crossing will have six traffic lanes in each direction plus two lanes for the extension of the City's Green Metro network.

At the bridge's midpoint will be an amphitheatre, ferry terminal and access to the nearby Zaha Hadid-designed Dubai Opera House.

Dubai Dirty Water?

Dubai unable to deal with dirty water

Dubai's water treatment facilities are unable to cope with the Emirate's rapid growth, with contaminated water now used to irrigate crops, and entering the Dubai creek.

Water treatment facilities are simply unable to cope with the large quantities of sewage coming out of Dubai's homes and businesses, Dubai Municipality has admitted. "People are starting to complain about the odour," said Aisha al-Abdooli, head of sewage treatment plants at Dubai Municipality, speaking at MEED's Wastewater Treatment & Reuse 2007 conference in Abu Dhabi on 10 December.

The quality of treated effluent is also a concern.

Dubai's Al-Aweer treatment works is operating at 70% above design capacity, producing treated sewage below international standards. Designed to treat 260,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of sewage, it now treats 460,000 cm/d.

"We were expecting more than 15 per cent annual growth in inflow [of sewage]," said Al-Abdooli. "It is now probably 25 per cent."

Indicators of biological organisms in the water show very high levels. "The treated effluent quality is at times absolutely shocking," says a water sector consultant. "The biological oxygen demand (BOD) [showing bacterial concentrations] levels are so high it is sometimes easy to believe it is raw effluent they are pumping back around the system."

One international consultant tells MEED his company has prepared a report on the problem and will be advising clients to introduce additional treatment for the effluent from Al-Aweer.

"We need to tell our clients who ask for architectural lawns and grass areas that they need to buy additional treatment until Dubai brings new capacity online," says the consultant.

Dubai Electricity & Water Authority says it will no longer provide drinking water for cooling plants, so developers must use treated sewage effluent. The Dubai Municipality will be unlikely to supply water to all of the Emirate's megaprojects. Designated wastewater treatment plants will allow developers to circumvent the issue.

New plants are in the pipeline. "They are looking at a number of short-term solutions," said Al-Abdooli, including a a 65,000-cm/d aerated lagoon to receive sewage and two membrane bioreactor plants, each with a capacity of 25,000 cm/d.

Longer-term, a 300,000-cm/d treatment plant is due to be commissioned in 2010 and is under construction at Jebel Ali, an area which will see a huge increase in population in the coming years.

A 65,000-cm/d expansion of the Al-Aweer plant will be completed in January 2008 and a third-phase expansion of the plant, which would add capacity of 80,000 cm/d, is under consideration.

Burj Dubai

Burj Dubai scales 150 storeys to become world’s tallest free-standing structure

• Increase image
• View all images

The Burj Dubai this week surpassed the height of the world’s tallest free-standing structure, the CN Tower in Toronto.

At 555.3m the Burj Dubai has now also scaled 150 livable levels, the largest number of storeys for any building in the world. The tower already holds the distinction of being taller than Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at 508 metres has held the tallest-building-in-the-world title since it opened in 2004.

Burj Dubai now surpasses the 31-year-old record of CN Tower, which at 553.33m has been the world’s tallest free-standing structure on land since 1976.

When completed, Dubai’s landmark tower will be the tallest structure in the world in all four of the criteria listed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The council measures height to the structural top, the highest occupied floor, to the top of the roof, and to the tip of the spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.

CTBUH, the acknowledged source of information based at the Illinois Institute of Technology, measures the height of a building from the pavement level of the main entrance to the structural top. This includes spires but not television antennas, radio antennas or flag poles. Burj Dubai is billed to scale past the KVLY/KTHI television mast in Blanchard, North Dakota, which at 628.8m is the world’s tallest mast and technically qualifies to be the world’s tallest structure, even though it is stabilized with a series of guy-wires.

More than 320,800 cubic metres of reinforced concrete and 63,300t of reinforcing steel have been used in the tower’s construction so far.

Burj Dubai became the tallest free-standing structure in the world in just 1,325 days since excavation work started in January 2004. More than 5,000 consultants and skilled construction workers are employed on site, and the world’s fastest high-capacity construction hoists, with a speed of up to 120 metres/min, move men and materials.

Structural steel work for Burj Dubai will begin soon, and cladding work using a high-performance system has been completed on several levels. The primary cladding materials of reflective glazing, aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels and vertical stainless tubular fins accentuate the tower’s height and slenderness to the eye.

Developer is Emaar Properties, with a construction team including South Korean contractor Samsung Corporation, New York-based Project Manager Turner International, consultant Hyder Consulting and architects Adrian Smith and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Railway Technology

Italy takes a lead role in Europe's high speed railway revolution

Bridge over Po River

• Increase image
• View all images

Italy's plan to build a 300km/h network is well under way and Balfour Beatty Rail is playing a major part.

Like the United Kingdom, Italy is desperate for a high speed rail network that can link its regional centres and provide a realistic alternative to its creaking highway system.

Unlike the United Kingdom, Italy is well into its programme of work that will eventually see most of its major cities connected in a east–west, north–south, high speed cross.

Part of the European Master Plan proposed by the European Union in the mid-1980's which aims to see a network of new high speed rail lines with an operating speed of up to 300 km/h, heavier axle weights and larger trains, the Italian High Speed Plan is broken down into four sections.

Turin – Milan, Milan – Bologna, Bologna – Florence, Rome – Naples.

Between Turin and Milan in the north west of the country some 125 Km of line is being built, the first segment from Turin to Novara has been in operation since February 2006 and the Novara to Milan section is currently under construction and due to be operational in April 2009.

Almost 200 Km separates Milan and Bologna and the high speed line connecting the two is due to be completed by September 2008.

A further 80 Km between Bologna and Florence is under construction and due to be competed by June 2009 while the 200 Km Rome to Naples section has been in operation since December 2005.

Other sections linking Milan to Verona and Verona to Padova are currently under design.

The common feature that links four of these sections is Balfour Beatty Rail. Part of the Saturno Consortium which features partners Alstom, Ansaldo Sts and Sirti; Balfour Beatty Rail will supply the high voltage transmission line, overhead contact line, substations, low voltage power supply and remote control systems along the length of the project.

Comments:

What happen to Malaysia Railway? An effort should be made to improve railway transport in Malaysia. It is another alternatives to reduce traffic congestion in Malaysia roads. We think about it..