KUALA LUMPUR'S roads have seen better days, but most drivers expect the ground beneath them to at least stay in one place.
A sinkhole opening up in the middle of a residential area in Wangsa Maju has rattled nerves in the city, coming amid growing public concern over the state of the capital's underground infrastructure.
Did a sinkhole really appear in Wangsa Maju?
Verdict:
TRUE
A video of a sinkhole at Jalan Wangsa Delima 4 in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur went viral on Monday (May 11), prompting authorities to investigate its cause.
Initial findings suggest the collapse was the result of utility maintenance work rather than soil settlement.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Fadlun Mak Ujud said inspections revealed that a sump wall, a retaining structure within a 1.5-metre diameter main drainage system in the area, had collapsed.
Investigators believe underground utility drilling work may have struck the wall, causing it to give way.
"We found that the sump wall had broken and we could not find where it had fallen. Adjacent to the area there are also utilities and there may have been utility work using the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method carried out underground, which cannot be seen from the surface.
"There is a possibility that this work struck the wall, causing it to break and allowing drain water to flow into the ground, resulting in the sinkhole," he said at a press conference at Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) headquarters.
Further investigations are ongoing to determine the precise cause. The affected area, measuring approximately four metres in length, four metres in width and four metres in depth, has been cordoned off and closed for two weeks to facilitate repair works.
A separate smaller depression approximately one foot deep was also detected near a bank along the pedestrian walkway at Jalan Tun Perak, though Fadlun confirmed that incident was unrelated to any utility issue.
On broader infrastructure monitoring efforts, Fadlun said utility mapping works along Jalan Masjid India were now 90% complete, covering a 32-kilometre stretch, with pedestrian walkway repair works in the area expected to commence in October.
DBKL will also be installing settlement markers at several locations to enable real-time monitoring of ground movement, with the same technology to be extended to 1,120 slope areas across the capital.
"If ground movement occurs, we will receive real-time readings so that immediate action can be taken in the Masjid India area, from Semua House to Masjid India," he said.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Federal Territories Hannah Yeoh and Federal Territories Department director-general Datuk Muhammad Azmi Mohd Zain were also present at the press conference.
Sources:
Bernama
