Saleh Mohammed recently wrote an article about a community-built-30-year-old concrete road “The Star Online Malaysia News” from a first-person perspective. Saleh traveled to Kampung Olak Lempit in Kuala Langat, Selangor to visit a friend. As he explained, it is quaint little village where one can still buy five relatively big slices of pisang goreng (a snack food of banana/plantain, maybe covered in batter, and deep fried—throughout the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But, what excited Saleh the most was the sleek 1.8 km (1.2 mi) stretch of concrete road which has been the pride and joy of the Kampung people for the past 30 years. Named Jalan Seribu Tahun (JST) or “Thousand Year Road”, it was constructed with the blood, sweat and tears of the Kampung folks with a little help from others. They toiled during the day, and during Ramadan, they worked at night after the terawih prayers.
It was the brainchild of Tan Sri Sanusi Junid-Malaysian Leader, for a gotong royong scheme (“communal helping of one another”) where residents and youth groups provided labor and the Rural Development Ministry provided the funds, materials, and equipment. A simple idea with a well thought-out plan, which Saleh termed as “a concrete plan”. It brought together Kampung people and inculcated the spirit of camaraderie, reduced involvement in unhealthy activities, and forged a healthy spirit of neighborliness.
Despite its heavy traffic use today, the JST needed very minimal maintenance. This would be ideal to fulfill the objectives of the Road Facilities Maintenance of the Public Works Department (PWD), to ensure all public roads always function properly, safely, comfortably, and provide superior maintenance services that are cost effective.
In the 2018 Budget, there are huge allocations for roads, for access, upgrading, alternative, or new roads. Taking a cue from JST and the renowned maintenance culture, Saleh Mohammed would strongly urge the PWD and other relevant ministries or departments to consider the use of concrete for the new roads because, besides strength and durability, concrete pavements also provide a durable and skid-resistant surface which would inevitably save lives. Therefore, cities and major highways could opt for concrete due to less frequent repairs and better strength from heavier traffic volume.
Recently, a news report stated that one of the road maintenance companies’ outstanding order books are budgeted up to the year 2026 and expected to grow further. Since the company controls about 40% of the market share for federal roads maintenance, by extrapolation the total amount of federal road maintenance is easily more than RM10bil ($2.54B USD) for the said period. This is a large amount of money which does not include roads under the purview of the Malaysian Highway Authority and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (Menara DBKL—Kuala Lumpur City Hall). Unfortunately, many funds are used for the so-called patching repairs, so at a time when funding issue is among the reasons for delays in road repairs, this would not have been a major issue if they had built concrete roads earlier.
Saleh Mohammed posed the question, How much of Malaysian roads are built in concrete today? A quick Google search shows that asphalt roads are relatively low cost compared with other paving methods and perceived easy to repair. Isn’t prevention better than cure? There is also a Malay proverb that says “Alah membeli menang memakai” (roughly translated as “good stuff is expensive but durable”).
He stated that there is no black-and-white solution to this matter, but we should be looking at a win-win situation. I think what is required now is for the PWD to do a new life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) calculation between the two without losing sight of economic, social, sustainability and environmental impacts to determine the best paving solutions. The parameters and assumptions used should be relevant for both cases.
Road surfacing plays a vital role in the economy, as well as the well-being of its population through the provision of safe transport of goods and people. If we see the benefit of building a High Speed Rail (HSR) at high initial cost, why not consider concrete roads that will last “1000 years” [as the road is so named]. 4 to 10 decades?
For the full article, please go to: https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/01/12/concrete-way-to-better-roads/#mFT72CKwIGG73p2E.99