Severe erosion why new Kota Kinabalu Airport taking forever

Severe and unanticipated erosion problems affecting the nearby Kampung Contoh is being blamed for the delay behind the re-development of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). However, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is yet to issue a 'stop work' order on the project.

The airport was originally scheduled to be completed in April last year. The new completion date is now March next year.

"We are being unfairly implicated in the KKIA extension project delay," fumed EPD director Yabi Angkat. "All we did was to ask the two Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) consultants to do a re-assessment of their original report. There is no stop work order."

Yabi was commenting on federal Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha's complaint on Monday in Kota Kinablu that the EPD was impeding progress of the KKIA project and the railway track project from Tanjung Aru to Tenom.

Kong cited the need to meet 'environmental requirements and overcome the technical problems'.

Yabi reiterated that although no stop work order was issued, no dredging of sand at the site would be allowed unless the contractors find a more environmentally-friendly way of building the landing approach lights (LAL) facility. They would also have to convince the EPD that their methods would work.

In short, there's now a stand-off between the EPD and the contractors on one hand and the EIA consultants and the federal ministry of transport on the other.

Remedial works

The EPD approved the original EIA report in the belief that the recommendations by the EIA consultants were accurate and true, pointed out Yabi.

According to EPD director, some of the predictions in the original EIA report on the impact of land reclamation at the KKIA 'totally contradicted' what had actually happened in terms of coastal erosion.

This forced the EPD to call in the contractors to make the necessary remedial works. In the original EIA report, for example, there was no specific statement that Kampung Contoh along the southern beach of the Petagas River would suffer bad erosion as a result of the KKIA project.

"There is no need to point fingers at the EPD," saidYabi. "We have already been blamed many times for the delays besetting the KKIA."

Yabi disclosed that the problems at KKIA began when a 100-metre long bar at the mouth of the Petagas River was removed during reclamation works. Apparently, this caused the waves to hit the village directly and severe coastal erosion then occurred.

The LAL component at the KKIA was allegedly another surprise sprung on the EPD by the EIA consultants and the contractors. The original EIA report received by the EPD did not mention this component.

Subsequently, the EPD discovered that the contractors would be building the LAL component which would extend 600 metres out to sea from the terminal end of the reclamation.

"When confronted, the two EIA consultants confirmed the LAL facility," said Yabi. "To facilitate this, they said they would dredge sand from the Petagas river mouth. They didn't indicate the volume or how they planned to carry this out."

Near urban area

The EPD director warned that beach erosion at Kampung Contoh was very severe and the worry was that if the KKIA contractors dredged a very deep 600 metre channel right in front of the village, the village might even collapse into the sea.

KKIA, when completed at a cost of RM1.4 billion for the terminal alone, would have 90,000 sq feet of space and handle 10 million passengers a year or twice the current figure.

At present, the airport handles 12 flights per hour. This will increase to 25 flights per hour when re-development work on KKIA is completed. The new runway would be 3,780 metres long vis a vis the present 2,988 metres.

It was originally planned that the KKIA, just ten minutes away from the heart of the city, would be moved to either Kimanis further south along the west coast or to Tuaran further north.

However, Malaysian Airports Berhad (MAB) the owner, subsequently decided to re-develop KKIA at its present site in Tanjung Aru.

International regulations governing airports do not allow them anywhere nearer than one hour from the nearest urban built-up area.

courtesy of Malaysiakini