Good news, Malaysians! The Stormwater Management And Road Tunnel or SMART tunnel has been listed as one of the 10 greatest tunnels in the world, according to CNN. This adds to the tunnel’s earlier recognition by the United Nations, where it received the Habitat Scroll of Honour Award in 2011 for its innovative and unique management of storm water and peak hour traffic.
As a bit of a recap, the SMART project was completed in 2007, and serves as both a flood relief tunnel and motorway. The former features a storm water tunnel that measures 9.7 km in length while the motorway tunnel length is 4 km.
The tunnel was built to solve the problem of flash flooding in Kuala Lumpur, and is expected to prevent billions of ringgit of possible flood damage and costs from traffic congestion. The article states that since it opened, “flood-prone areas such as Masjid Jamek, Dataran Merdeka, Leboh Ampang and Jalan Melaka have been spared from floods.”
It then goes on to detail the various operation modes available: when there’s no flooding, it serves purely as a road tunnel but when there are floods, rainwater can be diverted into a lower channel, with the upper level will remain open to traffic.
However, when exceptionally heavy floods occur, the tunnel is closed to all traffic and watertight gates open to allow floodwater to flow through both the upper and lower channels. If you would like a trip down memory lane with the SMART tunnel, this documentary by National Geographic should be worth an hour and 16 minutes of your day.
Joining the SMART tunnel on the top 10 list are are the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, the Channel Tunnel which links the UK and France, Eisenhower Tunnel in the USA, the Spiralen Tunnel and the Laerdal Tunnel, both in Norway, China’s Guoliang Tunnel in Henan Province and Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai, Japan’s Seikan Tunnel and the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line.
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The great feat here is getting the rakyat to pay via toll what should essentially be drain water management duty of the local council
Malaysia Boleh…extremely happy indeed
CNN forgot to say we have to pay tolls for this basic necessity. This tunnel is to drain water from the city. It is the job of the gomen to do that with tax payers money. Why make us pay tolls for it
tax bla bla bla bla bla..so boring…just give some credit to the people and please be appreciated
I think Kunta Kinte is right. Credit is due to the engineers and developers but the people pay their hard earned money for the toll regardless from the lonely security guard on the motor to the richest CEO in a luxury car. What does the gov actually pay for… Many years ago we can be proud for these kind of infra structures. These days no use if Jalan Tun Perak and Masjid Jamek Lrt station and the rest of kuala lumpur suffer heavy flood year in year out.”The article states that since it opened, “flood-prone areas such as Masjid Jamek, Dataran Merdeka, Leboh Ampang and Jalan Melaka have been spared from floods.””…Where is the proof for this. Been working in KL more than 20 years.Still the same. Flooding every time it pours heavy except this time we paid huge amount of money and effort for an award winning tunnel that does not really solve the problem.
hmm….2007…then after that, we got “city in the water pool”…why no awards? lol
Becoz png alredi won “city surrounded by water & flooded with water but have water shortage” award.
OK…
thank you thank you semua jasa dan wawasan saya yang arif
Congrats Malaysia…well done
Give credit where it is due. Otherwise we become society who’re always complaining.
SMART tunnels MEMANG “Smart”. When it’s not in use for diverting flood waters, the Rakyat have to pay for using the SMART tunnels.
According to Habitat Scroll of Honour Award in 2011, Smart is awarded the honour by virtue of its innovative & unique management of storm water.
If it was conceived to manage storm water, why is it collecting $$$ from the Rakyat who is already contributing $$$ in the form of taxes directly & indirectly ??!
Have to pay? Really? Goes to show u sinkies dun know Jalan tun razak is still in use. Helpful guide: when u use waze to go from NS hiway to kl CBD and back, set toll-free option. U can oso use toll free trunk road if u wanna kiamsiap.
So john, going by your logic, the Smart tunnel should NOT be used by the Rakyat when there is no flood management isit ?!
Where is your logic when U say our Gov Sangat Perihatin ?! Bagi lah Kami Guna(Free) Bila ia tak Di Guna untuk mengalihkan Air. Otak Hang Di Mana ?!
Maintenance cost for road surface inside smart tunnel is Hugh due to high erosion causing by billions cubic meters of water storming towards south. So the Toll is fair for not so congest path for your journey. If you’re not agree, then there’s always alternative…
If no tolls charged, every Tan, Muthu and Ali will be in the tunnel, but when it rains hard, the cars cannot exit the tunnel due to outside trffic jam, and the tunnel cannot be used for flood waters for fear of drowning the people stuck in the tunnel
i know we like to whack left,right and center , bt deservedly its one of the best construction efforts there is…we should be proud of it , and the fact its been maintained in a professional way ,its kudos to the management , without it , it could have been ALOT worse…clap for everyone involved…!
why should we be so proud… it is not a Malaysian invention… It was not engineered by Malaysian.. it wasn’t even built by malaysian labour but bangla.
any country with the cash could replicate this.
and I am still questioning the cost effectiveness vs the drain-is-drain road-is-road approach.
I guess CNN has tunnel vision …
This very long ago documentary video lo…
the video is old but CNN news is recent.
Thank you semi value!
All the comments shows how immature the new generation is. Most of them doesn’t even know that the tunnel is an Engineering feat.
You have NO right to say “how immature the new generation is” just because it’s an Engineering feat.
It is all about $$$/Dollars & cents. Does that makes SENSE to you ?!
You MUST feel very BIG by calling the young IMMATURE. Please remember you were once YOUNG.