Yesterday, it was reported that there are plans to set up a light rail transit (LRT) track to link Penang and the mainland. The suggested route will see LRT rails constructed near the first Penang bridge, making the connection the fourth link between the island and the peninsular.
The link will connect Gelugor on the island to the Prai Industrial Estate, where it will wind through housing estates, beginning with Taman Supreme before reaching Penang Sentral in Butterworth. The George Town-Butterworth LRT link will be connected to other rail networks in the state, The Star reports.
These are the 20 km-long Bayan Lepas LRT on the island, which will have 26 stops between Komtar and the airport, and the Raja Uda-Bukit Mertajam Monorail on the mainland, which will stretch from Permatang Tinggi in south Seberang Prai to Sungai Dua in the north. The monorail will have 22 stations, and will pass through Alma, Bukit Mertajam, Bandar Perda, Taman Supreme, Sunway Carnival Mall and Penang Sentral.
An additional two lines are also being proposed by SRS Consortium, the project delivery partner for the RM27 billion Penang Transport Master Plan. They are the Air Itam monorail, which will have 13 stops between Paya Terubong and Komtar and the Tanjung Tokong Monorail, which will feature nine stops between Tanjung Tokong UDA Flats and Komtar.
Plans are set to be submitted to the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) for study, and the alignment will be put on public display in June, SRS Consortium said.
While construction of the Bayan Lepas LRT is slated to begin in 2018, work on the George Town-Butterworth LRT and the Raja Uda-BM Monorail is only expected to start after 2026, the report adds.
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Instead of just building a LRT bridge, might as well a double decker bridge with road on top like in Seoul or make provision of building roads on top of the bridge later on when needed to. Yes it will incur more cost but definitely will be more cheaper than to build another bridge in the future.
Put a double decker bridge with road on top or below may not be a good idea in this situation.
Bridges across a strait or water body shall be design to rest on a series of structural foundation. The more loads (railway, track, roads, or even a permanent structure) that going to take up by the foundation, the larger, deeper and more complicated foundation shall be needed in place. It might not be a good idea in term of engineering. Especially to build it over a water body.
The reason why some structures needed to design in multiple stacking manner are largely due to space limit. In our case, we have plenty of open sea or strait. Space is not a problem. Thus, it is better to have it in separate bridge.
In term of cost, it may not be cheaper to build the double decker bridge compare to a completely standalone bridge relatively. Because Earth gravity is still the same.
Put aside political excuses, this plan is the best State government can do without helping from Central government. Look at China, even smaller scale city also have subway and look at what we have
BN may rest to peace, failing to allocate fund for Penang LRT in any years of Budget, despite years of empty promise, now Penang did it their own. BE END.
KL mass transport system is the worst in the world with different type of LRT, monorail, etc. which are not linked and integrated together. Others big city like LA, NY,HK, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc all have single MRT service using single pass. Bring the right system to PG area, not the screw up KL copy.