COLLAPSED...the left hand sidewalk that collapsed. Pedestrians crossing the river will have to use the right hand sidewalk on the Segaliud bridge along the Sandakan-Kinabatangan road in east coast Sabah.( Pix courtesy of Borneo Highway PDP Sdn. Bhd).
KOTA KINABALU: A bridge over the Segaliud river along Sabah’s east coast Sandakan-Kinabatangan road is still safe for motorists despite the collapse of two-steel support for the pedestrian sidewalk.
Borneo Highway PDP Sdn. Bhd. (BHP) said that an inspection on the bridge on July 19 found that the reinforced concrete on the left sidewalk from Kinabatangan direction had fallen into the river.
"Site workers at Sg Segaliud bridge were informed by nearby residents of a loud sound heard from the bridge on the late evening of July 18.
“It is suspected that the noise is from the two-steel support that snapped and fell into the river," the company said in a statement on Friday (July 26).
The sidewalk on the left side was declared unsafe and closed, the company said, adding that the old bridge already had some deformities on the side-walk section even before the Pan Borneo Highway Sabah project started to build a new bridge.
The company said that the inspections from below the bridge found no sign of structurally unsound condition, especially the roadway section.
"Based on a two-day observation, (we found that) the other main components, such as main steel girder, floor beam stringer and bracing, bridge portal struts and bracing, vertical frame, top chord, bolts and nuts connections for all main components and the deck slab, are still intact," the statement said.
With the closure of the left-hand sidewalk, the contractor installed extra warning signs to alert motorists to slow down for the pedestrians to cross the road to the sidewalk on the other side.
The company had also informed the village head of the matter.
Under the Pan Borneo Highway Sabah project, the old steel truss arch bridge opened in the 1970s will be replaced by a concrete bridge.
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