I’ve just received an SMS alert from The Star reporting that Works Minister Datuk Seri Samy Vellu has announced that the SMART Tunnel toll rate will be set at RM2 and will be effective from 11:59pm, June 14 2007.
This is actually pretty affordable as speculation among the grassroots have mentioned amounts as high as RM3 or RM4. The RM2 toll is definitely attractive, especially on the route from KL back to Sungei Besi as there is usually no backlog of traffic once you exit onto the Sungei Besi highway.
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If it's true, then it is affordable if you use it once in awhile. For those who choose to use it everyday, then it's gonna hurt. No doubt it is convenient as it cuts through a lot of traffic but the tunnel itself is quite hazardous.
I have tried it a couple of times and it is a disaster waiting to happen. Why?
1. It is narrow and the cars tend to speed beyond the limit.
2. The road is very bumpy and it can cause a driver to lose focus on the traffic and worry about the damage the car is going through.
3. The signages are not enough and too small to be really noticed, especially if the drivers are worried about the speeding cars and the bumpy roads.
4. The part where you decide to take which exit is concealed behind a blind corner and I've noticed drivers who didn;t know which road to take stop suddenly in the middle. This caused the other cars behind to honk profusely as it is a blind corner and the cars are all speeding.
If you are new to the tunnel, it can be very stressful and you're constantly worried about an accident. So it works well provided there is no accident. But can you imagine if there was?
that IS an attractive price! now the headache of deciding whether to take it or not, cos if expensive, no need to think!
i agree that the tunnel is quite dangerous, already see quite a number of skid marks and accidents will quite surely happen and cause a pileup. A few things that can be done, imho, are
1. have more led signages overhead to warn motorists in case of accidents
2. light up the tunnel brighter
3. impose speed limits ( i know i hate this but for safety sake)
the rate is attractive. but we need to see how far the tunnel can minimize the traffic jam. i use it everyday and there's no day without jam inside the tunnel. for the time being, the problem i had with the tunnel is the road surface. very unconfortable. maybe that's why the rate is only RM2. LOL. i agree with sooaun's suggestion regarding the LED signage. i think they have no problem updating the signage in real time since there are no space in the tunnel that cannot be seen by the monitoring camera (that's from my observation). by the way my only hope is this RM2 is not just "introductory price".
also when rain… will it safe to go into it?
The news I've heard of the Smart Tunnel thus far, people using it were jammed in it!
Some cases where the jam started even before the entrance to the tunnel. So people that were not using the tunnel managed to reach home earlier than those travelled via the tunnel.
Go figure. Is that the smart way to travel?
The jams you speak off are because of the entrance being only a single lane. I think once you are in the tunnel, it should be moving. Unless there is a lot of traffic, then any tunnel or road also will not suffice.
But with the collection of toll, I think there will be a reduction of users initially. then it will pick up later when people realise how much time they can save. Then it will jam up again. Then Samy Vellu will introduce a new highway again.
Not so smart ! Standard of living in KL is sky rocketing !
so now that this tunnel is officially opened, can the authorities please explain the entire procedure for activating the flood mitigation system? i hear people keep saying "what if cars get stuck in the tunnel?"
I've tried SMART tunnel and i must say, after feeling all excited, it only leave me utterly dissapointed. I can't believe something that was completed overdue their deadline had such quality of work delivered. When i went in, all cars along me are going around a max of 40kmh – 50kmh WHY? The whole road was done using cement, sand and lousy quality stone chips, it's bumpy, full of ripples and my teeth was almost shaked loose. . . i can't believe it and i will not use this.
As for the 3 to 1 exit, i can foresee huge jams.
to marmitecrab:
June 11, 2007 @ 10:51 am
If it’s true, then it is affordable if you use it once in awhile. For those who choose to use it everyday, then it’s gonna hurt. No doubt it is convenient as it cuts through a lot of traffic but the tunnel itself is quite hazardous.
I have tried it a couple of times and it is a disaster waiting to happen. Why?
1. It is narrow and the cars tend to speed beyond the limit.
—— this is true, but i think that's the whole reason to make the tunnel narrow, to avoid drivers from speeding.
2. The road is very bumpy and it can cause a driver to lose focus on the traffic and worry about the damage the car is going through.
—— again, i believe this is part of the design to make the surface of the road uneven??? to avoid drivers from speeding as it will make one hell of a bumpy ride!
3. The signages are not enough and too small to be really noticed, especially if the drivers are worried about the speeding cars and the bumpy roads.
—— agree, more signages needed.
4. The part where you decide to take which exit is concealed behind a blind corner and I’ve noticed drivers who didn;t know which road to take stop suddenly in the middle. This caused the other cars behind to honk profusely as it is a blind corner and the cars are all speeding.
——- agree, more notifications or signages needed to inform drivers waaay before they reach the exit.
LoL pay RM2 for bumpy ride ?
No !
I think RM2 to bypass the heavy traffic is worth the cost. During those days when KLCC had manned payment booths, I knew a lot of people drove through like it's a tolled road and willingly pay RM2.50 just to bypass after-hours traffic.
Before all you people complain about bumpy road and how narrow it is, DON'T FORGET that the PRIMARY use of this tunnel is for FLOOD WATER! The car track is sort of bonus. Also, most parts of KL is not exacly solid ground so being able to create a tunnel this size is a technological breakthrough.
after all i think it depends on you. some will say expensive, some will say cheap. depends on your perspective.
If any1 of you watched discovery channel, there was 1 program called megastructure, featured SMART tunnel, the whole tunnel is fitted with sensor, so when they want to flood the tunnel, sensor will tell the operator how many car went in n how many car went out, if the sensor give a clear signal only the tunnel will be flooded. As for the speed limit, if my memory serve me right, it keep showing up to tell you the limit. As for brightness, didn't you notice it is damn bright? not bright enough? Hmm I doubt it. For the bumpy ride is because of the cement, which is…damn poor haha but since the speed limit is 60, should be a prob. Afterall, it's a tunnel, PLEASE DO NOT SPEED IT THERE! and please follow the instructions! I know Malaysia do not have much tunnel to practice our tunnel passing driving style, but for everyone's safety, please follow instructions and do not assume you are smart enough to not to comply to rules!
As for RM2, it's quite ok if compare to time and fuel you can save.
Paul do you think RM2 is cheap for daily users?
The maintenance cost of Tunnel is very Expensive, if the tariff number is low, hard to believe it can earn back the investment and keep good maintenance. SemiValue don't know how to do the simple calculation, Maybe it takes more than 20 years? At the end all come from Tax payers.
As we all knew that the tolls will be increased soon, but slowly slowly ……soon will be RM4 or RM5. Sikit-sikit lama lama jadi Bukit.
SemiValue knew how to Suck ppl money only!
Mana boleh charge charge charge only….Why we still have to pay for solution of avoiding traffic jam?.. Whose fault?..Why not Do something Free of charge one bro.! Think deeper lah SemiValue.
Bumpy? It was pretty ok the last time I went in it. Did you rode in a Kancil with over inflated tyres?
As for the cement pavement, it actually cost more than tar/bitument. So, don't say it's cheap. Of course, all for the long lasting of it.
Do stick with the speed limit. Not sure if those cameras double as a speed trap. Do you want to take the chance, aside from jeopardising other users?
Shy on you Mr Paul Tan. You are so materialistic. You sacrifice your blog for BMW advertisement only for the money. You are not the real man who love your blog. All of the audience of your blog now "sakit mata" with your advertisement in this blog… If you want money, go to work la…ok.
Irkeez said,
June 11, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Shy on you Mr Paul Tan. You are so materialistic. You sacrifice your blog for BMW advertisement only for the money. You are not the real man who love your blog. All of the audience of your blog now “sakit mata†with your advertisement in this blog… If you want money, go to work la…ok.
Irkeez, i believed running this blog required some sort of $ also…N IF U THINK IS A SOUR TO UR EYES SEEING THIS BLOG WITH ADVERT, THEN U CAN SIMPLY GET OUT OF HERE..
IF UR EYES SOURED, GET LOST LAR….OK.
wahlaueh
——-
ingolstadt said,
June 11, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
As for the 3 to 1 exit, i can foresee huge jams.
——–
Hi Bro, this foreseen huge jams are their SMART plan calculation for few years later to raise up the concern to built another tunner because jams…. another time to suck $$$… see the tricks…. This is the same things happen to penang bridge where all heavy traffic lane make become single lane exit or entrance & jammed at bottle neck.
wahlaueh…
'Irkeez said,' I think is your 'otak sakit' lah… why don't you try to setup your own blog & try to maintain it & see how it works…. don't simply talk cxck… Paul is a real man love women & girls! Irkeez, you need to love your shoes, pants or else you are not a man…??
RM2.00 the rakyat can still tahan for now… but when is the next toll rate revision again? skali few mths/1yr later, naik to RM3.50, would it still be ok? RM2 as base rate is too much leh!
IMHO RM2 a not that cheap considering we pay:
a) Huge taxation for cars
b) Annual road Tax
With the present inflationary prices of goods vis-a-vis our earnings, everything is only cheap on the surface, but our spending power is really diminished. I'm speaking from the point of view of a normal working class executive here.
The most important thing for the tunnel is, eliminating traffic along the Seremban highway and reduce floods in KL. I remembered that this tunnel was suppose to act as a main exit for floodwaters in KL, but i doubt it's doing that good a job.
It is true the road are not smooth and bumpy and build by cement..but try to think another way round.
Back to my secondary schools few years ago which owns more than hundred years old aging, the floor was build by cement too, and guess what, all the floor turns to shinny and slippery once water on it and it is hardly noticable when expose to the sun(light). WHY?
Because more than 150K of students wear rubber type of school shoe to walk all the floor in the schools more 100 years EVERYDAY..The rubber tore out the roughness of the floor, once the floor is wet, rubber sort of most dangerous material to be contact with.
The road's roughness might can resistant more than 100 years for the theory i mentioned above.
Do you guys think the contruction thought of this matter and the solution??? Comment please..
#
Irkeez said,
June 11, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Shy on you Mr Paul Tan. You are so materialistic. You sacrifice your blog for BMW advertisement only for the money. You are not the real man who love your blog. All of the audience of your blog now “sakit mata†with your advertisement in this blog… If you want money, go to work la…ok.
—
I think nowadays ads are part of our life. 90% of our time, we will see ads. so, i think i'm ok with it. i think mr paul don't force us to buy the bmw by putting the ads there. at least this blog is free. maybe you prefer a blog that have subscription fee with no ads at all. but i still prefer free since nothing is cheaper than free.
More over car's tyre is made by rubber right? And more than thousands of motorist will going to use the tunnel right? The bumpy feeling surely will gone in one find day!!! And Malaysian drifter would like that road very much after then.
Thought of this idea because Sandakan's road is under construction that turning tar road to cement road in certain roads in the main town.
Tar not able to last longer compare to cement so that is why you can see alot of holes in Malaysia's road. And you must be asking why dont use cement for all the roads in Malaysia?
Well..go to those shop that sells house-renovation utensil/material to ask how much per-pack of cement and calculate the total of Malaysia's road length…
By the way, Sandakan is a so-called "Natural City" located in the East Sabah.
I think yesterday 10/6 there' a big flash flood happened in KL. Suppose smart tunnel will evacuate the flood water from KL rite? Why it aint working???
Irkeez said,
June 11, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
All of the audience of your blog now “sakit mata†with your advertisement in this blog…
—————————————————-
Wei! How do you know other people "sakit mat", Lu sahaja "sakit mata" , mata saya tak sakit.
http://www.water.gov.my/project/smart/s_tunnel.ht… http://www.water.gov.my/project/smart/s_com.htm http://www.water.gov.my/project/smart/s_modes.htm
have a look at that site. still doesn't explain how the flood mitigation system is activated. what is the procedure? some team will drive through the tunnel and check to ensure all traffic and people are clear before closing the gates. is it? how to identify them?
also, you can see the tunnel is supposed to be a storage for about 1.4million cubic metres of water. it's supposed to offload water from klang river.
unfortunately yesterday's flood was at gombak river. aiyoyo…another smart tunnel there for another rm20 million?
whao….
I did manage to catch the making of the tunnel on National Geographic (or was it Discovery Channel?). It was a monumental project and I believe the costs are high because of the nature of the project. The tunnel costs RM1.9 billion to build and over RM600 million is to be recovered via collection of toll. The rest is being paid for by Drainage and Irrigation Dept (methinks) as part of the flood mitigation solution.
So obviously the taxpayers are paying double for this tunnel. The question is, how effective is this tunnel going to be in ensuring KL city doesn't flood in the places it's supposed to work in and what are the solutions to the other places that are constantly being flooded? Do we build more flood mitigation tunnels? If one project like this already costs RM1.3 billion, just for the flood mitigation purpose, is it worth it and can it be duplicated for other areas? Obviously the cost is too high to even consider other areas.
So as a flood mitigation solution, it's uncertain if it's going to be effective. And as a solution for motorists, it's a give and take situation. It's going to cut travelling time tremendously but just don't get caught in an accident or a traffic jam.
Is it a failure then? Only time will tell.
droll said,
June 11, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
so now that this tunnel is officially opened, can the authorities please explain the entire procedure for activating the flood mitigation system? i hear people keep saying “what if cars get stuck in the tunnel?â€
———-
This tunnel is call SMART which is likely "storm management in disguise", as I am in the following opinion the real agenda is to built toll road: –
1. This stretch is super heavy traffic flow that can earn a good revenue. Say on average 200k car use the tunnel a day both way.
Say 1st to 2nd year offer "teaser rate" to commuters = 200k x RM 2.00 x 365 days x 2 = 292 Million
3rd to 4th year increase to RM 3.20 (60%) = 233.60 Million x 2 = RM 467.20 Million.
5th to 6th year increase to RM 4.80 (50%) = RM350.40 Million x 2 = RM 700.80 Miilion.
In between this period, our honourable Samy Vellu will announce cmpensation to SMART due to use as flood mitigation and subsidize the rate which in the agreement should be higher, say it is RM 250 Million.
SMART operate from 1st to 6th year total gross revenue = RM 1.71 Billion! Walaueh, a big whopping sum! The cost is only around RM 1.20 billion. Really exemplary smart!
Deduct all the operational and other cost, SMART breakeven is expected to achieve on 6th year of operation, or around 17% of rate of return. Damn smart investment! From 7th year onward, "buat untung tak payah modal".
2. Until prior to today and official tol collection on 15th June 07, as recently as within one month there are two flood that created havoc to city centre. And last sunday flood is the worst in history even flooded praying area of Masjid Jamek. The most perplexing question as to why this so call SMART tunnel is not use to divert this heavy storm?
a. According to reliable intelligent sources from Engineer fraternity, the mechanism or mechanical installation for storm tunnel from Klang River around Ampang area haven't complete yet. In other word, the tunnel is not fully complete or to be more diplomatic, it is partially completed for the following "reasons": –
i) The storm or flood section haven't finish yet, perhap it is not a "priority". That is the reason why current flash flood in the city centre, the SMART tunnel "do nothing about" it.
ii) Priority is to complete the road section first to collect money as soon as possible. Whilst City centre faced worst flood, SMART tunnel still passable by motorist! Really Malaysia Boleh! Money come first, society well being take a back seat!
b) I drive through this tunnel at least 10 time both way, I observed perhaps the only traffic light underwater (when use as flood tunnel) in the world can be found in this tunnel. There are enough lighting but lack of signage to guide first time user. In the event this tunnel really use as diversion of storm water (in practice, SMART may minimize it), that mean all are flooded and all this lighting are water proof. After flooding, then it is a nightmare for SMART to do maintenance works, on road surface they may have cleaning vehicle to clear the mud. But for wall, ceiling, traffic light and lightings, likely it must be clean manually. That means if use as 1 time for water flow, the tunnel need at least 1 week to clean it. Toll lost is RM 2.8 million + cleaning cost! Ha, ha, ha, lost of revenue and additional cost incurr. It is a "very bad commercial" decision to act as storm water diversion!
"Do you smell what the G/SMART is cooking"?
So, for those in the opinion RM 2 is cheap, including Paul Tan, don't be kidding and deceive by this "teaser rate"! The volume is there and the money flow like water is there!
As for rough concrete surface. This is due to technical reason. Tar or bitumin material characteristic is it is "porous", "flexible" and make of mixing of agreegate and bitumin. Normally there are first layer known as tack coat, 2nd is base layer and 3rd is wearing coarse. If this bitumin road is submerge in the water for long duration (during use as storm diversion), it is easily peel off and damage, normally have famous "hole" or "crocodile crack". So, SMART is right by not using tar road, but simply concrete surface only!
Joe Ooi said,
According to reliable intelligent sources from Engineer fraternity, the mechanism or mechanical installation for storm tunnel from Klang River around Ampang area haven’t complete yet. In other word, the tunnel is not fully complete or to be more diplomatic, it is partially completed for the following “reasonsâ€: –
___________________________________________________________
Hahaha by the time the following "reason" achieved, KL might already been submerged under the flood water…
droll said,
June 11, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
also, you can see the tunnel is supposed to be a storage for about 1.4million cubic metres of water. it’s supposed to offload water from klang river.
———–
This tunnel design with two deck for traffic and below for permanent water flow. The deck for traffic is technically call "dry run" and below the deck is "wet run". It is anticipate SMART will try to make traffic deck as "dry run" as long as possible for commercial reason. Time will proof it!
Toll charges aside. Yesterdays flash floods all over KL was indicative that the SMART Tunnel does not work!
Likely scenario in future! Everytime city centre around Masjid Jamek flooded like "waterworld", SMART still happily open the tunnel to traffic and continue counting money!!!!!!!!!!
"Normally there are first layer known as tack coat, 2nd is base layer and 3rd is wearing coarse."
shall be read as,
"Normally there are first layer known as tack coat, 2nd is BINDER COURSE and 3rd is wearing course.
so it's time to buy shares in the concessionaire!
Hughh….a complete no no for me, not becoz of the toll, but the condition of tunnel and the reputation of msian contractors……….
Furthermore, the BOCOR trend is now famous among msian contractors………
and just for once be cool…..
Oh no hopefully SMART wont bocor, otherwise water will have no way out, we will be driving submarine.
But anyway, it reminded people about SMART whenever its rain, especially when theres flood, hahaha.