Bridge Progress Sunday 16 Feb 2014 - GOODBYE TO BAMBANGAN TREE

The contractors crew were also working on Sundays. When I asked them why, they said that the fine weather in the morning must be taken advantage to carry out the earth filling and compaction which was done in layers as per standard engineering procedures.

True enough by 2:30 pm it started drizzling and continued to light rain until midnight.

However much work was done in the morning filling the road area approaching the bridge at the left side which will initially be used as staging area for the fabrication of the steel beams for the bridge.

JKR has also widened the road reserve for highway by acquiring about 3 m width into the land lots near the bridge as shown in the photos. In doing so a majestic bambangan tree has to be cut down.

Two views of the Bambangan Tree belonging to the Majawin Family ( light blue house behind)  that will have to be cut down. Even if it is left at the edge of the road, it will still die because the roots have been filled with that red clay earth on top which drowns the root system.

Additional land acquired from the existing house lots as can be seen by the new location of fence wall from the old one. Land owners along this highway again have to sacrifice a slice of their land for the sake of the highway.

Earth filling works... good and dry working area in the morning on Sunday.

 

All works on the bored piles were completed as of this date

 

 

The staging area for the fabrication of the steel beams for the bridge.

 

PROGRESS as on 28 Jan 2014 just before their 1 Week CNY Break

Hi folks, 
Have been slack in updating the progress of our new bridge.
As on this date, the bored piles on the left bank are completed which is 3 nos of 1000mm diam and another 3 nos of 600 mm diam next to the river bank.
LEFT BANK PICS:

Round concrete spacer

 



Completed 1000mm Bored piles

 

 



Completed 600mm diam bored piles

 

 

 

RIGHT BANK:

 





Mobilised to the right bank of the river to commence the bored pile works

Some welding works on the steel pipe casing

 

Concreting of another 1000mm diam bored pile

 

 

 

 

Concreting with tremie pipe 

 

 

The weather has improved from this date, the sun was out and very hot but the ground is still wet and soggy.

A BIGGER FLOOD TODAY

 

From these photos, seems that the project site has sufferred its highest flood level from the river.

Of course this Moyog river has given hundreds of higher floods but what I meant is the flood level since the contractor possessed the site for the new bridge.

From another view:

 

And a resident suffers ...

So much inconvenience for residents.  Also to update in year 2020, the district has 20 floods, almost one flood per month bringing in diseases such as meliediosis and lepstospirosis. This is due to the failure of all the goverment with no political will,  and the departments such as Environmental protection to stop illegal hill cutting in the Moyog catchment.  Updated 14 feb 2021

LOAD TESTING OF FIRST WORKING PILE STARTED ON TUE 7 JAN 2014

Hello folks,

After many weeks of preparation, the construction company finally commenced loading the 1 m diam working piles as per the standard pile test procedures, on 7th Jan 2014. I believed the maximum load would be 500 tons, twice its working load, but normally the load will be applied slowly, such as 200 tons on the first day and the deflections are recorded for 24 hours.

Two technicians have to be there day and night for 4 days.

These photos are self explanatory to all engineers I bet.

This is the pressure testing equipment setup. In the red is the hydraulic pressure pump, the pressure gauges on the blue inverted pail that connects to the load piston plunger (on top of the concrete pile).  4 dial gauges at each corner are used to monitor the downward deflections.

 

Close up of the loading plunger, with maximum capacity of 1000 tons but only half of that capacity would be used.

 

 

The two technicians who has the unenviable task of monitoring the testing for 4 days and night.  They got a good stocks of food and drinks though,  he he he..  Cheer up boys  !!

 

 

This is an update:

 

As on Friday 10 January 2014, I dropped by to have a looked and was told that the design working load for the 1 m diam bored pile is 225 tons and the maximum test load was 450 tons, which produced a maximum downward deflection of 4.1 mm only, and when the load was released after 4 days of testing, the residual deflection was only 2 mm.

 

I think the pile passed the load test with flying colours as expected anyway.

It is the same boring boring test for GTS testing lab who has done probably hundreds of this kind of test. Meanwhile the logo BGE means Borneo Geotechnical Engineering company.

 

 

ACCIDENT - 1 TON LORRY PLUNGED FROM OLD BRIDGE AT 3:30 AM 17-12-2013

At around 3.30 am on 17 Dec 2013, the small lorry with a driver and passenger broke through the downstream railing of the old Dambai Bridge and plunged down into the muddy flood water of the Moyog River.

The dept of the river at that time is about half of the river and the flow was quite strong that in the morning the  lorry was found about 300 m downstream of the bridge.

According to the Bomba Search and Rescue Unit who set up and operation tent near the project site of the new bridge, they received the distress call at 3.41 am. The name of the driver was  Maxmellian Lim Chong Au , aged 26 and he was found by the villagers clinging at the left bank of the river. He refused to be sent to the hospital while his passenger, Hafiz aged 20 was suspected still trapped in the lorry registration no. SAA 7216 U.

However, when by 9 am when the scuba unit of the BSSU arrived, they found no body in the lorry and so the poor passenger is now suspected to be washed downstream.  Hilang is the term used by Bomba.

The local villager also quoted the driver as saying that  when he was driving on the bridge, he saw what appeared to be a big hole and so turned around to go back but instead crashed through the downstream railing of the bridge as the photo here shows.

Part joke and part belief of those bystanders near the scene, even including police officers says that the new project which included deep excavation and breaking down of very large boulders, did not observe the local adat which should have sacrificed some livestocks in order to appease the spirits that occupy and own those big boulders.

When modern construction and infrastructures were introduced in this country, the local natives beliefs or Adat is that the structures will be stronger if farm animals are offerred to the spirits who will be disturbed by the horrible sounds jackhammers attached to the arms of big excavators breaking and removing large boulders.

Also no accident ever happened near this old bridge since it was completed like 40 years ago, but now since the new project started, it has been raining on site every evening without any break.  Then this accident occurred.

 

Scene of accident showing broken railings and at background, the completed work after the rock breaking

 

Two scuba divers from Bomba search and rescue preparing to dive into the lorry which is submerged until the roof.

 

 

 

 

Video for 12 Dec 2013

 



This videos I took myself and found in my own youtube channels showing part of bridge construction methods


Video of Accident on 17 Dec 2013 which I have taken myself showing BOMBA rescue divers checking if a victim is still trapped in the lorry

Rain every day slows down the progress of work on the new Dambai Bridge

Hello folks,

Have not update this blog due to very bad wifi connections.
As of today, they have only started concreting two of the 600mm bored piles for testing the 1 m diam working pile. 4 of them are actually needed.

However, the sun is hot in the morning but every afternoon or evening the rain turns up like cats and dogs, thus slowing down the progress.

so a few photos and one video to update.

This is the reinforcing bar for the 1 m diameter working pile. Reminds me of some fish traps.

 

Muddy ground after the flood on 5th Dec 2013

 

Left bank with flood water

 

Right bank after flood

 

Welding works on the rebars for the 600mm diam test bore piles

  

 

Progress video as on 30th Nov 2013

PROGRESS OF WORKS 28 NOV 2013 - CONCRETING OF FIRST BORED PILE FOUNDATION

There is only two major works seen today.

1.  At least two excavators are used to cut the hill slope within the road reserve to cater for the road expansion and access to the bridge at the right bank of the river. As expected, large boulders are found and rock breakers attached to one excavator is used to try and break up these rocks.

Above this slope, there is an existing private house whose owner had built a brick fence that encroached into the road reserve. This part of the fence was already removed and a new chainlink fencing is already installed at the land boundary.

Note the brick fence at the top already knocked down and replaced with a chain link fence at the reserve boundary. A retaining wall would have to be built ASAP otherwise the resident's watertank may go down the slope. He he he


2.  Pouring of the concrete into the first bored pile foundation was also carried out today.

 

 

 

 

Two videos are also linked here for your info.