System to warn motorists of dangerous slope movement

System to warn motorists of dangerous slope movement
Tuesday December 25, 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 safe 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.

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 would receive a notification on their mobile phone if the earth movement recorded was 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.

He added 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.

“Apart from that, PWD workers will also patrol the route once a day to look out for soil erosion and other road safety matters,” he said yesterday.

Ho pointed out that repair works, costing some RM25mil, on several other unstable slopes had been carried out to check erosion.

He said missing guardrails and signboards had also been replaced at a cost of RM1mil. -- The Star News