Where does the water from the SMART Tunnel go?
Click to enlarge - photo snapped with Nokia E90
Have you ever wondered where all the water from the SMART Tunnel goes? The tunnel is designed channel flood water away from the city centre even when it is not closed, with closure deemed necessary only during major storms.
The picture above shows the Taman Desa lake where all the water from the SMART Tunnel ends up, snapped earlier today when it was raining in town. You can see that the colour of the water coming out of the tunnel is very different from the rest of the lake.
The tunnel was closed for a few days towards the end of last month, and massive traffic jams ensued. It seems that despite the RM2 toll many of us now cannot live without the tunnel if we are to hope to reach home in time for an early dinner with the family.
April 1, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
The construction of the SMART tunnel was impressive and was shown on National Geographic some time ago. let’s hope that is well maintained so that it will give many years of efficient channeling of flash floods from the city.
April 1, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
dude, i’m very impressive with this amazing engineering solution. I’m proud being a malaysian coz we have such this wonder in world. SMART primary objective is to divert water from “Kuala Lumpur” to outside. The road tunnel is just a secondary objective. So, hopefull all road user plan well ur jurney during raining season. “Kuala Lumpur” it self a word where all the mud gathered. What you aspect from this??
April 1, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
I’m not in the position to criticise the merits of SMART, but your entry also implies KL is now choked with road traffic no thanks to the lack of efficient public transport, to the point that traffic jams may ensue when just one major road link is shut off. All the government had to show these last four years was the consolidation of two rail transport companies (which hasn’t seen any significant improvement of services), the establishment of a bus company which efficiency is also dependent on the volume of road traffic, mere promises of extensions for the PUTRA line, and even more highways and widened roads.
With the way the country’s infrastructures continue to promote the use of cars in M’sia, traffic disruptions like these are simply not going to go away. Heavy rainstorms certainly won’t.
April 1, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
what happened if there is too much water that the lake simply cannot take?
haha! contigency plan for this wasn’t told at all, i mean if there is a plan.. lah.
April 1, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
The water can be used to clean the tunnel… Good idea…
April 1, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
The water level looks high…
Is it?
April 1, 2008 @ 10:44 pm
What happens when there is a massive storm, and even the reservoir gets full? Where does water from SMART ends up? I know that from recent floods, SMART proved itself capable of not making KL flooded
April 1, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
hyundai said,
April 1, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
The water can be used to clean the tunnel… Good idea…
_________________________________________________________
LOLZ!!
April 1, 2008 @ 11:15 pm
smart tunnel? not smart enough thou.. Sg Gombak overflowed near jalan ipoh and got flooded today. it just a 2 hour storm. I could see quite a large area was flooded from my office. Luckily the water drain away before evening rush hour. spent billions n still get flood. another good project wasted by poor execution. poor malaysians
April 1, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
ORLY?
April 2, 2008 @ 12:20 am
Agree with what Parrot has said. The tunnel was originally designed to channel water. The traffic bearing idea only came in much later as an after-thought. So you can see that the government is really trying to alleviate problems with the roads for private vehicles in mind, not with other forms of public transport. The money wasted in building super highways (while slapping us poor road users with exorbitantly high toll price in the process) can instead be channeled to add extra train to the LRT or connecting more areas with rail services.
April 2, 2008 @ 1:01 am
wat color of the water is different??? i cant see the difference leh…
April 2, 2008 @ 1:29 am
i wish this tunnel can smartly swallow the storm water from sg inki back in my kampung too (sorry pun intended)
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tolan said,
April 1, 2008 @ 11:15 pm
smart tunnel? not smart enough thou.. Sg Gombak overflowed near jalan ipoh and got flooded today. it just a 2 hour storm. I could see quite a large area was flooded from my office. Luckily the water drain away before evening rush hour. spent billions n still get flood. another good project wasted by poor execution. poor malaysians
April 2, 2008 @ 7:11 am
i’ve always think, is there a cheaper alternative to channel the flood water during a flood, i don’t think the tunnel helps to reduce congestion. i mean for example if you enter from Jln Tun Razak near RHB then exit further down the road near the airfield, you end up back in the jam again. You pay your money just for the extra few km of free driving…Why not just install a emergency water pump system which sucks the flood water to the same lake??
April 2, 2008 @ 7:59 am
tolan, PLEASE learn the facts before commenting that the tunnel is a wasted project.
The Smart Tunnel is designed to flush flood waters from the western Klang river, compared to the eastern Gombak river (Jln Ipoh area). The SMART system will divert excess stormwater away from the upstream of Ampang and Klang rivers through the Kampung Berembang holding pond in Ampang, a bypass tunnel and a storage reservoir in Taman Desa before it is released back downstream of the Klang and Krayong rivers
That’s why the Jln Ipoh area is affected with flood, but not that serious as it subsided before the rush hour period.
April 2, 2008 @ 8:02 am
oops it should be eastern Klang river, and western Gombak river…
abtm says,
Why not just install a emergency water pump system which sucks the flood water to the same lake??
Huh, u think its easy & fast to pump thousand of cubic meters of water to be channelled out miles away?
April 2, 2008 @ 9:13 am
ramai salah anggap SMART tunnel ni.
the main purpose is for flood prevention, not for traffic.
so, kalau hujan lebat, memang patut tutup.
the idea is good. tapi bila orang dah biasa guna, bila ditutup, dah jadi tidak normal. manusia serign kali terleka. maka marah2, sengal2.
apapun, masa hujanlah kesesakan teruk berlaku. tu tak termasuk kereta laggar bontot kereta depan.
kan best area2 KLCC, bukit bintang, pudu raya ada medan jalan raya bawah tanah seperti di New York.
April 2, 2008 @ 9:14 am
my comment does’t appeared?
April 2, 2008 @ 9:56 am
suprisingly there wasnt any jam from sg.besi all the way through to Jln Istana went I went into the city between 5:30-6pm.. ..
April 2, 2008 @ 10:13 am
Paul, the picture taken by E90 very impressive!
April 2, 2008 @ 10:32 am
They should have just built a bigger tunnel for the water channelling so they never have to close the road part of the tunnel even during heavy rain. Not so SMART.
April 2, 2008 @ 11:15 am
for the current sitution.. it’s global phenomenon.
TUn M maybe expect this as well before.. but this wasnt enough to solve the problem.
As for coming years, maybe it gonna turn bad. Smart Tunnel was help much. but it do help. No doubt about it. I were like to think in another way. Must do all related action such as:
Reduce global warming / at least KL warming factor as example : too much cars / bus bla bla on the road. each one generate carbon and heat. Subsidize more on public transport (remember what pak la la said wanted to cut off petrol subsidi , but where’s the money now?) Let say, you only need to pay 50cent - RM1, and the bus/lrt as quick as 7 minit each . Increase parking fees to avoid selfish malaysian bring all their cars to office but only one person per car
. Taxi subsidized too..
Planting many more trees in kl at where ever possible. This method to reduce faster flow water from rain to the river as known..
Else.. we will still get flood, ‘banjir kilat’ etc as selfish as we are..
April 2, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Anyone work within KL city center wanna really get away with daily stress coming to work perhaps can think about moving out to stay at Ampang Jaya area. Using Ampang elavated hiway it takes u only barely 15 minutes from ur home to reach ur office’s doorstep & vice versa. what a pleasent daily chores!!!
April 2, 2008 @ 11:59 am
Hey dude! Just shift out and come to stay at Desa Pandan. only 10 minutes away to reach Bkt Bintang & KLCC areas right from ur home doorsteps. No need to bother about smart tunnel.
April 2, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
albagmane said,
April 2, 2008 @ 1:01 am
wat color of the water is different??? i cant see the difference leh…
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the water coming out from water gate r brownish lah bro.. see carefully..
not surprise as the water from SMART tunnel must be all mix up with mud, debrist etc (coz suppost to be flood water right?)..
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feirouz7 said,
April 1, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
dude, i’m very impressive with this amazing engineering solution. I’m proud being a malaysian coz we have such this wonder in world. SMART primary objective is to divert water from “Kuala Lumpur†to outside. [b]The road tunnel is just a secondary objective. [/b]
April 2, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
that feirouz7 fella made his point… ‘The road tunnel is JUST a secondary objective’.. think about it (he’s right)
April 2, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
Albagmane - enlarge the photo and you can clearly see the difference in the incoming muddy/yellowish color compared to the dark greenish blue lake waters.
April 2, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
There is a saying,
“jangan mahu berak baru cari jamban”
Proper water drainage management should have been incorporated into the development of Klang Valley from the very beginning, not after the infrastructures are all up and running.
April 2, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
typical Malaysian. Complaint, complaint, and complaint.
The MAIN PURPOSE of the SMART Tunnel is to channel out excess water out of KL so you and all your expensive cars not get soaked and damaged in those muddy teh-tarik colored waters. It has proven this capability to us several times from numbers of previous heavy storms. For that reason, it has to be closed for a couple of days so that the Management can do a series of proper inspection, cleaning, testing, and so on so that the next time they opened it back, and you run your expensive cars through it, your expensive tyres wont get stuck in mud ! And they want to make sura that you wont get chased by some kind of mutant alligators or lizards. Got it..??!!
The traffic flow purpose is used SECONDARY when the weather is all right, so you wont complaint later that this is another white elephant waste-of-money mega project bla bla bla only useful when it is flooding bla bla most of the time kosong useless banyak angin saja bla bla and all kind of complaints. It was their courtesy that the tunnel also to be used as a road tunnel so you and your expesive cars can reach your expensive Bangi or Nilai or Putrajaya homes on time for dinner. Is it waste of money? Imagine if the tunnel is to be built in 2015 or 2030 instead of a couple of years back. How much it will cost at that time? How about KL at that time..? nobody going to be in KL because it flood all day and there is nothing at all to take the water out. What will happen to all your expensive pubs and discos and hotels and all your businesses? tutup kedai loh.
I am not blindly defending the tunnel or the people behind the idea of the tunnel or the cost of building it. But as far as I know, it at least served its purpose to avoid KL from heavy flood a few times. I am just pizzed off with the way some people who knows only to bashed a few small issues instead of looking at the overall bigger benefits the tunnel provided.
Long live KL, and hope it wont stink.
- peace.
April 2, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
the tunnel is a fine idea. However, this is idea came about after many flash floods that took place in the heart of KL. Bet KL folks can recall all that incidents.
Somehow rather, the development in KL and its surrounding is very rapid and sometimes all land are cleared and then hard paved, rendering the nature’s “sponge” to absorb water useless. There are hardly any trees or green space in KL that could effective soak in the water. The authority should do something about regulating the physical development in KL so water run-off can be dealt with without constructing mega flood mitigation projects that requires billions of ringgit.
April 2, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Can somebody explain how this smart tunnel works? it seems like everybody has no idea how it works. According to my understanding, The water is not flow in the car lane, but under the car lane.
April 2, 2008 @ 2:31 pm
en7yfl said,
Can somebody explain how this smart tunnel works? it seems like everybody has no idea how it works. According to my understanding, The water is not flow in the car lane, but under the car lane.
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Dont forget to catch “Malaysian SMART Tunnel” on National Geographic Channel (ASTRO Channel 555) if you got a chance. They will re-run the episode some day. It has all the stories.
April 2, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
bravo bro madimat.. i couldn’t have explain better…
en7yfl,
AFAIK when there’s no flood the SMART tunnel will open all it lanes, but they can close the lower lane to assist the water flow (when the treat of flooding during raining storm exist)… they will fully close the SMART tunnel when there is a high chances of flood and fully utilised it as a mean to tranfer excess water.. & to my understanding, the water flow inside the tunnel itself (in the car lane).. correct me if i’m wrong
btw, there’s NO ultimate solution in engineering… we need to compromise something… in this case, to fully prevent flood, u must have a lot of MULLAH.. why? we can build bigger SMART tunnel (in the 1st place), another SMART tunnel etc… but the cost? the geograpical constraints? don’t talk about the past, “should have been incorporated into the development of Klang Valley from the very beginning” etc. etc… we all know who we vote for.. live with it
April 2, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Some people already saying this mega project is a waste of money and some said should have done it from the very beginning,which is true?Few years ago we can always expect a monsoon season will be end of the year but now it can be any time,have to agree with madimat…
April 2, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
Dont forget to catch “Malaysian SMART Tunnel†on National Geographic Channel (ASTRO Channel 555) if you got a chance. They will re-run the episode some day. It has all the stories.
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sorry,.. correction. National Geographic Channel is on ASTRO 553, and not 555. harap maaf.
April 2, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
Just a thought, there should be some kind of early notice to inform of the tunnel closure to the public, could in the form of sms, radio/tv announcement or any other appropriate means so that the usual tunnel users could plan alternative route to go home. It wouldn’t be an easy operation but if there is a good coordination among the tunnel operator and relevant agencies, it should be successful…ofcourse not everybody would be smiling but the general public are taken care of.
April 2, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Ahaks oreng Key Ell… so sad with all the jams and flooding.. But living out here in the country I do miss all the metrosexual stuff in KL ie: Jazz festivals, theatre, cineplexes, KL football team, Baze, 11LA.. hehe..
April 2, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
mukhri88 said,
April 2, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Ahaks oreng Key Ell… so sad with all the jams and flooding.. But living out here in the country I do miss all the metrosexual stuff in KL ie: Jazz festivals, theatre, cineplexes, KL football team, Baze, 11LA.. hehe..
=============================================
aha..don’t forget Riverbank,Beetlenut,Pyramid Club,Rainbow…wah in80’s and early 90’s KL were such a fun place to be…now it’s too overcrowded…
April 2, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
i wonder. when can m’sian people ever be happy about some of the projects the govt has done? not to say that there is an 100% good project. some are good some are bad. just like people, we are not perfect. unlike some of the condemner here, all complain, but offer no solution. there should be more people like nobodyatuk, providing positive remarks on how to make it better. though it might not be feasible, but i am sure there are other ways of doing it.
i think its also due to the local newsprint. really good example of gossip journalist style (this includes The Star newspaper). writer: if you are reading this, I am sorry, but truely, it could have been written better.
rather than just concentrating on the jam, the writer should have write up on the good point of closing the tunnel. its like looking at a glass half full or half empty.
my 1 suggestion for the tunnel? if only it could be bigger and wider. otherwise fine with the whole concept of things. just feel really scared with the rumours that its cracking and stuffs.
April 3, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
it’s wider and large enough.
it height’s about 4 storey high building .
told you, making a tunnel wasn’t an easy tast.. the larger you bore / ‘korek’ the more effect for the building on the surface ground.
for the time being as i told above.. the rain is too much. and not enough trees or other method to slowdown the water flow to the longkang.
April 3, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
aiyak..manyak komplen…x bsarla…it is really xpensive to korekla…for me…dat tunnel is insanely big…3 tingkat tu tunnel…one floor for water…another two for traffic flow from kl n frm seremban…its big…
u cant xpect everything is perfect..in architecture n engineering world…there is no perfection…wat we can do..jz makes it nearly perfect…there a lot of constrain u hv to face…but u can make the constrain less…
April 3, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
yesterday flood again at several places in Klang Valley…
why not bring the ‘Monsoon Cup’ here?? LOL
April 3, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
put it this way lah ok, yesterday it rain like crap, and the traffic was so badly clog up (my office is very near pavillion) took the tunnel and got back 35mins later i live in ttdi… a colleague who lives in dsara. left the same time got back 1 hr +… 2 bucks on a bad traffic day is nothing.
anyway if you do get a chance to watch the doco… you might contract the question why was the tunnel not set up a long time ago… the technology to bore a 4 story tunnel and to have a proven technology to manage the tunnel effectively during a storm is quite a leap, and ontop of that to have a city in the worse area possible area… and to top it all off a badly design city. That tunnel had to make sure it didnt burst the thousands of cables,pipes, etc… oh just to top it all off there is a huge batu kapur deposit below KL making it very unstable to build anything underground.
City planners should be blamed for some of the traffic woes, but when morons start going into the yellow box to “be faster” during a bad traffic day i wish i had my pb gun…
April 4, 2008 @ 10:27 am
===quote===
bahari said,
April 2, 2008 @ 9:13 am
kan best area2 KLCC, bukit bintang, pudu raya ada medan jalan raya bawah tanah seperti di New York.
===/quote===
New York City doesn’t have extensive underground roadways. It has extensive underground subways and elevated railway lines, which is why only 48% of New Yorkers own cars, and only fewer than 30% actually drive to work. Let’s not forget the proposed congestion charges to be imposed in the city as well to discourage use of cars in the city.
===quote===
madimat said,
April 2, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
I am not blindly defending the tunnel or the people behind the idea of the tunnel or the cost of building it. But as far as I know, it at least served its purpose to avoid KL from heavy flood a few times. I am just pizzed off with the way some people who knows only to bashed a few small issues instead of looking at the overall bigger benefits the tunnel provided.
===/quote===
But the argument above fails to take into account the wider scope of development in KL and its effect on water levels. Even though KL has, since its beginnings, suffered from worse flooding (one such flood during the 1920s was waist deep) that were partially subdued with the construction of riverside levies, crappy development plans thereafter that opted for direct cost cutting (extensive pavement of natural ground, downing of trees with no equivalent replacement and channeling of rain water into the rivers) without consideration of their long term effects has dramatically increased the amount of rain water in rivers over the years. Rather than discuss the tunnel itself, why not focus on what could be done mitigating the risk of future flooding?
===quote===
madimat said,
April 2, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
The MAIN PURPOSE of the SMART Tunnel is to channel out excess water out of KL so you and all your expensive cars not get soaked and damaged in those muddy teh-tarik colored waters. It has proven this capability to us several times from numbers of previous heavy storms. For that reason, it has to be closed for a couple of days so that the Management can do a series of proper inspection, cleaning, testing, and so on so that the next time they opened it back, and you run your expensive cars through it, your expensive tyres wont get stuck in mud ! And they want to make sura that you wont get chased by some kind of mutant alligators or lizards. Got it..??!!
[...]
It was their courtesy that the tunnel also to be used as a road tunnel so you and your expesive cars can reach your expensive Bangi or Nilai or Putrajaya homes on time for dinner. [...] What will happen to all your expensive pubs and discos and hotels and all your businesses? tutup kedai loh.
===/quote===
That was an awful lot of generalisation, isn’t it?
April 4, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
Parrot said,
bla bla bla.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
well, sorry for all those awful generalisations i made. I just hope some day you can come out with a time machine of some sort so that you and I get back to 1920’s or 1970’s or 1990 something and advised the Mayor of that time to start a 500 years plan for KL.
And how do I wish that from the very beginnings we filled the Mayor’s office with a hybrid species of genius and fortune teller so they can foresee what will happen in 2008 and beyond before allowing all those lousy and greedy developers and property tycoons from cutting out trees and digging up holes anywhere and everywhere they feel like to do it.
uh,. maybe that wont happen here because we’re malaysian, right. Selalunya bila dah terantuk baru nak terngadah.
But the good news is, you can still send letter about your “…. why not focus on what could be done mitigating the risk of future flooding? ..” to the planning office and fight for it. Then it is just to them whether want to read and consider it seriously or just do a 3-point throw to their dustbin.
For me I see the tunnel just as another necessary facility; I like it so I use it, but if you dont like it, just ignore it and see it as an expensive giant drain that helps to take water out during raining season. Hate it so much because it cost you your tax money..? well I also one of those tax payers, like you.
-peace
April 4, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
well me too… i wish they use my money to build another SMART tunner & not sending another female polar bear to North pole & monkey to space (again).. LOL
April 5, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
BO COMMENT AT ALL!
SORRY FOLKS I LIVE IN KUALA LIPIS
NO JAM NO NOTHING JUST THE ROARING OF MY SWIFT SPORT ENGINE IS HEARD
April 5, 2008 @ 6:57 pm
osh kosh,
LOL…sokong