Early warning system on slope movements

Early warning system on slope movements
By Hah Foong Lian
Monday December 24, 2007

IPOH: An early warning system on slope movements has been installed to ensure the safety of motorists travelling along the Simpang Pulai-Pos Slim road to Cameron Highlands.

The warning system, which records slope movements at Gunung Pass, is part of several measures to ensure the 56km-long road is not dangerous to motorists.

“It is safe to use the road despite the current rainy spell because adequate measures have been taken to check soil erosion along the route,” Perak Public Utility and Infrastructure Committee chairman Datuk Ho Cheng Wang said Monday.

Ho said the warning system, installed at a cost of RM500,000, would give real-time data of earth movements on the unstable slopes of Gunung Pass.

Top officers at the Perak Public Works Department (PWD) would receive a notification on their mobile phone if the earth movement recorded were at an alarming rate, he said.

“With that, we can send out early warnings to motorists should there be a need for us to stop them from using the road,” he said, adding that the computerised early-warning system was set up in early December and was now on a trial run.

Soil erosion is known to occur along the Simpang Pulai-Pos Slim road, particularly at Gunung Pass, during a downpour.

The road is popular among motorists travelling from here to Cameron Highlands because it reduces the travelling time by more than an hour. -- The Star News