MRT tunnelling: On easier ground

What lies beneath: X marks the spot, or in this case, the orange cone does. Motorists drive along Jalan Bukit Bintang unaware that, 16m under the road surface, a tunnel boring machine is excavating away for the MRT. Workers on the road are always on hand to keep a keen eye out for any signs of subsidence.

Tunnelling for the MRT has entered a smoother phase as machines prepare to leave Kuala Lumpur’s premier retail area.

AFTER nearly two years of quietly excavating underground, the pair of tunnel boring machines for Klang Valley’s inaugural mass rapid transit (MRT) has finally finished traversing some of the world’s most difficult tunnelling terrain: highly-weathered limestone or karst.