Soil scientist Kam Suan Phen also criticises the EIA report for ignoring critical concerns including the impact of underground water flow.
The Pan Island Link 1 (PIL 1) plans to connect Gurney Drive in the north of Penang island to the airport in the south.
GEORGE TOWN: An geospatial expert today warned that a 10km tunnel, which is part of the controversial Pan Island Link 1 (PIL 1) highway, might pass through fault lines that could cause irreversible damage.
Kam Suan Pheng, a soil scientist, said Penang island comprised of “one granitic rock” and had naturally occurring fault lines or cracks, where water would usually seep through.
She said if these were hit during the tunnelling process, it could spell disaster.
Kam said based on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, the tunnel would cross three such fault lines or cracks.
She said the EIA report for PIL 1 warned that it could affect the stability of the iconic Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple, the Air Itam Dam and the Penang Hill railway complex.
“Imagine, when you are tunnelling through and you hit a fault (line). The water that has long seeped into the fault lines will gush into the tunnel.
“I know people will say there are engineering methods to solve this. But even before you can put in engineering reinforcement, you might have water and mud gushing in,” Kam told participants of a talk hosted by the Penang Forum here today.
The PIL 1 project will connect a suburb close to Gurney Drive in the north of Penang island to the airport in the south.
The highway will have a 10km section with four tunnels separated by viaducts and elevated roads, which will be “drilled and blasted” through the hill slopes of Penang Hill, Paya Terubong and Sungai Ara.
The state government is adamant that the tunnels are a better option than elevated structures that will necessitate the cutting down of trees and the evacuation of residents along the route.
Geospatial expert Kam Suan Pheng speaking at a briefing organised by NGO Penang Forum in George Town today.
Air Itam dam
Kam said the cracks would not just affect the tunnelling process but would also have a domino effect on the Air Itam Dam, which was constructed as an earth dam 56 years ago and is extremely fragile.
She said with the dam perched at 235m above sea level, the slightest movement would bring gallons of water gushing down to the Air Itam valley, possibly affecting all people in its path.
She said this was based on red flags from the EIA report, indicating that “collapse and subsidence” may occur as a result of tunnelling through the fragile areas near the fault lines.
The EIA report in question states that “areas intersecting with fault zones are highly fractured and vulnerable to collapse”.
The report also says tunnelling work may damage nearby condominiums, the Kek Lok Si Temple, the Air Itam Dam and even the Bukit Bendera (Penang Hill) complex.
Kam said in the 1,195-page EIA report, there was no single mention of the stability of the granitic bedrock they were planning to tunnel through and the impact of underground water flow.
She said the report, however, had advised a detailed study of the fault lines along the tunnel alignment near the hills so that a “refined, safe route” could be found.
“What the EIA does not say is, what if the safe route cannot be found? And the project would have started, with money ploughed in already.
“Even if a safe route was found, they make no mention at what cost.”
‘What to do with 750,000 lorry-loads of debris?’
In a blow-by-blow analysis of the EIA report, Kam found the report to be highly unsatisfactory as there was no proper risk analysis.
She said there was dubious data, assumptions and unverifiable claims in the report.
Until now, she added, traffic and social impact studies were yet to be made public.
Kam said the EIA report made no mention about rock debris caused by drilling and blasting through the hills.
Based on her calculation, she said an estimated 2.5 million cubic metres of rock debris would need to be carried away.
“That is 750,000 lorry-loads of five-tonne lorries. There is no mention on how this debris would be managed in the three- to four-year period to build the tunnel.
“And what access roads would they use? Presently, there are very narrow and dangerous roads that you might have to take to get there. Can you imagine these five-tonne lorries going through them?”
Air and sound pollution
Kam said the air pollution projection from the project was also questionable, with a nitrous oxide reading of just below 2 micrograms per cubic metre (ʊg/m3) in the George Town area.
She said government statistics show 18-25 ʊg/m3 in the Gelugor area, while the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area was in the range of 18 to 94.
Kam said when the EIA pollution data was referred to an expert in Oxford University, the response was that the 2 ʊg/m3 was “only likely in places far away from human civilisation”.
“The predicted air quality is better than reality,” she said.
She said the rainfall data used historical data, and did not take into account climate change and sudden bouts of heavy rain which had caused flash floods in Penang before.
She added that the sound pollution from the highway close to the Youth Park, a popular jogging and recreational area, would also shoot up to 75 decibels, which is equivalent to the noise from a vacuum cleaner.
Kam said the Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) was also not forthcoming, with six feeder roads or roads close to the PIL 1 highway expected to be in a gridlock once the highway is completed.
“After hearing all this, if you are concerned as a citizen, I urge you to send in a letter to the Department of Environment in Putrajaya.”
According to a public report of the project on display, over 700kg of explosives will be needed to blast through the hills. The Penang Forum said the estimated amount of explosives would be more than that. -FMT
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