Last Beam Up For LATAR Expressway Bridge As Templer’s Park Sleeps

It took a crew of 100 men and three engineers to put in place the final 90-tonne U-beam measuring 37.9 m on the LATAR Expressway bridge, making it an engineering feat of precision and high drama – all at 3.00 am as the communities in the Templer’s Park area slept undisturbed.

Watched in awe only by traffic that stopped momentarily along Jalan KL-Rawang (Federal Road 1), the contractors of the 33-km LATAR Expressway put the last massive bridge-beam into place in minutes across the trunk road, a historic moment as far as LATAR Expressway is concerned.

KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway Berhad (KLSEB), concessionaire for the RM958 million new LATAR Expressway, announced this today.

“This last beam was ‘hoisted’ at the Templer’s Park interchange, making the final stage of development for the LATAR Expressway complete. With this in place, the expressway is closer to opening in the middle of this year,” said KLSEB chief executive officer Amran Amir.

The Templer Park Interchange comprises three-tier directional ramps allowing for a free-flow of traffic in and out of the LATAR Expressway and the Jalan KL-Rawang route.

There are four ramps at the Templer’s Park Interchange – LATAR Expressway to Kuala Lumpur (Ramp AA); Rawang into LATAR Expressway (Ramp BB); LATAR Expressway to Rawang (Ramp CC); and Kuala Lumpur into LATAR Expressway (Ramp DD).

“Constructing the interchange was a challenge to us. We worked within a constrained space surrounded by the Hutan Kanching Forest reserve, live traffic along Jalan KL-Rawang and encountered the difficulties of rock formations lining the trunk road which did not permit for rock blasting on a busy thoroughfare”, said Amran.

The manual hand-dug Caisson technique had been applied to Ramps AA, BB and DD. In geotechnical engineering terms, a Caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used to work on the foundations of a bridge pier. The tallest column supporting the bridges measures 26.8 m at Pier 3 on the LATAR Expressway to Kuala Lumpur segment and the beams here have the longest span.

“To ensure the sturdiness of these bridges at the ramps, some of the bored piles go down very deep into the ground – 17 m into the soil and 4 m into granite,” added Amran.

Beams are commonly used in bridge construction, and the LATAR Expressway has a total of 569 beams in place for the bridges located at its four interchanges and an overland stretch along the expressway that circumvents a main water pipe artery that serves three-quarters of Selangor.

The “last beam up” was also witnessed by many workers who have been involved with the construction of the expressway since 2008. LATAR Expressway is a green field dual-carriageway project linking Templer’s Park in Gombak district to Ijok in Kuala Selangor district and is a faster safer choice of just 18 minutes between the two ends.

LATAR Expressway will serve several townships such as Kuala Selangor, Assam Jawa, Ijok, Batang Berjuntai, Kota Puteri, Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, Bukit Jelutong, Sungai Buloh, Kundang, Rawang and Selayang as well as allow for a faster, safer choice to the cities of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. LATAR Expressway provides ready access into the PLUS North-South Highway, the Guthrie Corridor Expressway and the West Coast Highway when it is complete.

The new expressway forms the North West portion of the Malaysian Government’s bigger plan for a KL Outer Ring Road (KLORR) which begins from the Templer’s Park Interchange along Federal Route 1 (KL-Rawang) to the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.

KLORR is a planned orbital ring road within the greater Kuala Lumpur area as an alternative to the present congested Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2).

Construction of the LATAR KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway began in October 2008 and is expected to complete ahead of schedule by end of May 2011. The Malaysian Highway Authority is expected to carry out its inspections on the LATAR Expressway this month, and subsequently give its approvals. The general public can enjoy the new expressway by the middle of this year.