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Kuala
Lumpur, Tuesday :- To ensure that customers enjoy a safe,
comfortable and convenient journey, PLUS Expressways Berhad (PEB)
has set aside RM475 million this year for the maintenance of the
North-South Expressway.
More than 1,000 professionals including engineers and technical
personnel conduct an average of 20,000 inspections every year
and monitor major assets along the expressway.
“Our maintenance strategy is aimed towards preventive
maintenance rather than curative maintenance of all major assets
which include 4,290 lane-km of pavement, more than 6,000 slopes,
562 bridges, more than 4,000 drainage culverts, 2 tunnels, 87
toll plazas, 24 rest and service areas, 4 Overhead Bridge
Restaurants and 43 lay-bys,“ said PEB Managing Director Noorizah
Abd Hamid in a media briefing at the PEB Headquarters today.
In addition to these assets, PEB maintains 12,000 toll equipment
components, more than 14,000 streetlights as well as high mast,
Closed-Circuit Television, Variable Message Signs and Emergency
Telephones.
The Company has also developed the first integrated highway
maintenance management system of its kind in the country.
Completed and in use since 2000, TEMAN (Total Expressway
Maintenance Management System) is acknowledged by the Malaysian
Highway Authority as an important asset management tool.
The core modules of TEMAN consist of a Pavement Maintenance
Management System (PMMS), Expressway Slope Maintenance
Management System (ESMaS), Bridge Maintenance Management System
(BMMS), Drainage Maintenance Management System (DMMS) and Tunnel
Maintenance Management System (TMMS). PEB also adopts the HDM4
pavement deterioration model by World Bank which is currently
being used by over 1,000 road agencies around the world.
In a presentation on highway maintenance, Chief Operating
Officer Nik Airina Nik Jaffar said that in line with the
Company’s objective to ensure optimum asset condition PEB adopts
a structured and integrated asset maintenance regime as well as
pro-active and long-term approach for asset preservation and
enhancement.
“It encompasses network planning, network asset condition
assessment, technical investigations, review of design options
as well as implementation of maintenance works.
“The inspections carried out include periodic inspection,
special investigation, maintenance audit inspection and detailed
structural assessment by specialists,” she added.
Nik Airina said that aerial inspections are also carried out on
a monthly and quarterly basis to assess activities adjacent to
the highway, such as third party works, that could have
potential impact on the expressway.
For slopes, technical assessment is undertaken to streamline the
frequency of inspections. “This assessment encompasses visual
inspections of the slope condition and performance based on
geomorphological and geological characteristics.”
For pavement, annual condition assessment measuring key pavement
performance indicators such as deflection, roughness and texture
are carried out using visual and mechanical methods. This is to
facilitate the early detection of potential defects for
immediate maintenance, she clarified.
Nik Airina added that PEB places great emphasis on the
exploration of new technologies and methods to continually
improve the maintenance regime of the expressway.
One of the recent milestones was the pilot installation of five
Debris Flow Nets at Gua Tempurung and Jelapang to serve as added
protection and to complement the maintenance regime already in
place for these priority areas.
“Although this preventive measure is already in use in Hong Kong
and Japan, our debris flow net installation is considered the
first in Southeast Asia. The cost for the five installations is
more than RM5 million,” she said.
Another development is the introduction of the Real Time
Monitoring System (RTMS) which includes the installation of rain
gauges on selected priority slopes to enhance instrumentation
monitoring. The data collected is analyzed for long-term plans
and short-term measures. Installation has been completed at six
locations with 64 more planned for the near future.
Nik Airina also revealed that PEB continuously engages in joint
research with several universities and consultants to increase
the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance methodologies.
PEB funds these research projects involving the latest highway
technologies and approximately RM4million has been expended for
such initiatives.
In addition to TEMAN, PEB has also designed iTEMS (Intelligent
Toll Equipment Management System) which is a management tool
that facilitates the tracking of toll equipment maintenance
works. Further development of iTEMS includes the Fault Detection
System (FDS) module that allows advance detection of potential
equipment breakdown to enable early intervention for optimum
lane capacity.
PEB currently operates 971 kilometers of toll expressways in the
country namely the North-South Expressway (NSE), North Klang
Valley Expressway (NKVE), Federal Highway Route 2 (FHR2),
Seremban-Port Dickson Highway (SPDH), North-South Expressway
Central Link (NSECL), Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing (MSSC)
and Butterworth-Kulim Expressway (BKE).
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