PWD Sabah needs more bite to carry out enforcement

Written by Admin

KOTA KINABALU:  A proposal has been made to review all existing regulations and ordinances related to road construction, maintenance and management in Sabah to allow the Public Works Department to have better supervision.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan Tuesday said reviews will be done, including on the State Highway Ordinance (Cap. 55), before it is proposed for amendments at the Sabah State Legislative Assembly sitting.

“The proposed amendments would allow PWD to manage the roads, including road reserves, more effectively. The department should be given the power to take action against errant people for causing damages and affecting the safety of the road users,” he said.

Having said that, the Infrastructure Development Minister stressed that the roles to preserve and maintain these main assets is not the PWD’s responsibility alone, but also the road users.

Speaking during the launching of the PWD Open Day, here, yesterday, Pairin said the maintenance and management of these stretches face great challenges which need to be overcome, such as overweight vehicles which could damage the roads and shorten its life span.

“Illegal erection of billboards and advertisement boards at road reserves, as well as the construction of unauthorised access, are among the challenges that cannot be overcome effectively without proper provision of laws.

“The existing road networks needs proper and effective maintenance and management to ensure that its services are maintained.

“Therefore, the PWD must ensure road maintenance by concession companies and departments should be carried out with proper planning and meet the standards and scopes set,” he said.

Apart from that, he said PWD must venture into new methods and technology in the road construction and maintenance industry, including the usage of latest materials, standard and management system, and also proper provision of laws.

Pairin said that of the 21,136 kilometres stretches in Sabah, only 40 per cent or 10,376km are sealed with asphalt.

“To date, only the city and main towns are accessed with asphalt roads. However, most of the villages, agriculture areas and tourism locations can be accessed by gravel stretches,” he said.

Realising the importance of good road networks, Pairin said his ministry has come up with programmes to improve these links statewide.

“The implementation to upgrade these stretches to asphalt roads is under the Rural and Regional Development Ministry’s programmes and allocation from the state government. Focus is on tourism, industrial, highly populated villages and potential agriculture areas,” he said.

Pairin said that most of these roads in Sabah were constructed in the 90s according to the standards set at the time, which are no longer suitable today.

He had also urged PWD to formulate an effective traffic management system to overcome the congestions at main areas such as Sandakan, Tawau, the city and many others.

“This also include preparing new road networks, upgrading single lane to two or three lanes, flyovers at major intersection areas and tunnels,” he said, adding that the Works Ministry has prepared the Highway Network Development Plan  which is utilized by the government  as guidelines to improve roads and the traffic system. Borneo Insider

Overloaded lorries such as this logging truck is a common sight at the Sapulut-Kalabakan road which is being sealed. Where are the enforcement agencies such as the Road Transport Department?