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.

LATAR Expressway to Provide Commuters Easy Accessibility and Faster Alternate Route to Federal Road 54

KUALA LUMPUR -- This was the message given to a group of property investors when they visited a section of the LATAR Expressway recently, a 33 km two-lane carriageway that links Kuala Lumpur at Temper’s Park in Gombak district with Ijok in Kuala Selangor district.

And it will also spur high capacity economic development for the towns along the LATAR Expressway.

LATAR Expressway is now in its final stage of development and will be the alternate link road to the present Jalan Sungai Buloh – Kuala Selangor (Federal Road 54). When opened, it will provide for a faster, safer, smoother and non-congested drive that would take only 18 minutes to accomplish from end-to-end.

“LATAR Expressway links the townships of Kuala Selangor, Assam Jawa, Ijok, Batang Berjuntai, Kota Puteri, Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, Bukit Jelutong, Sungai Buloh, Kundang, Rawang and Selayang as well as to the cities of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur,” explained Dato Ir Mohamad Razali Othman, Chairman of the KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway in his welcoming remarks to the Selangor property visitors.

“It is all about accessibility and time-saving travel; residents and commuters in and around Rawang and the surrounding townships need the accessibility and convenience when traveling in and out of the North West part of the KL Outer Ring Road (KLORR), which begins from the Templer’s Park Interchange along Federal Route 1 (KL-Rawang) to the Guthrie Corridor Expressway.

Prior to the existence of the LATAR Expressway, commuters could not move as easily and as speedily from the North-West part of Kuala Lumpur to towns located in and around Kuala Selangor and Petaling Jaya without experiencing traffic congestion.

“Mobility is the pride of place for the LATAR Expressway, as it will provide valuable links to the existing PLUS North-South Highway and the Guthrie Expressway, and the various towns thereon. The LATAR Expressway connects the many townships through four interchanges and three tolls, which will assist in dispersing traffic significantly,” added Razali.

According the Razali, the new LATAR Expressway is also expected to spur further growth of property developments, townships and commerce in the region, just as it has during the construction period.

“The LATAR Expressway will definitely stimulate high speed, high capacity development bringing unprecedented prosperity and economic progress to Kuala Selangor. Commercial and general trade activity will receive a boost because of the easy and convenient access to all the towns,” added the KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway Chairman.

With the opening of the LATAR Expressway, the KLORR –  an orbital ring road within the greater Kuala Lumpur area -- would be near complete. It will strategically take away congested traffic from the existing Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2).

The completed sections of KLORR include the Guthrie Corridor Expressway linking to Elite Expressway from Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam to Saujana Putra, and the South Klang Valley Expressway from Saujana Putra to Kajang. In addition KLORR connects Kajang to Hulu Langat via the SILK Highway.

With the completion of LATAR Expressway, 75% of the KLORR network would be formed leading to the Government’s greater vision for traffic dispersal that reduces congestion in Kuala Lumpur city.

Construction of the LATAR Expressway began in October 2008 and pending inspections by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) motorists can enjoy the new expressway by the middle of this year.

The concession was awarded to KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway Berhad for a period of 40 years. Mudajaya Holdings Berhad is the turnkey contractor for this expressway who was awarded the job for a contract value amounting to RM958 million. The construction divided into two packages, comprises package 1 of the proposed design-and-build contract from Asam Jawa to Kundang, while package 2 is from Kundang to Templer's Park.

LATAR Expressway Enters Final Stage

Measuring 33 kms, it is a greenfield project that will provide a faster, safer choice for commuters

KUALA LUMPUR --- The KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway (LATAR Expressway) linking Kuala Lumpur at Templer’s Park in the district of Gombak with the township of Ijok in the district of Kuala Selangor on the West coast of the peninsula, has now entered into the final stage of development.

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

The 33 km dual carriageway expressway will be the alternative link road to the present Jalan Sungai Buloh – Kuala Selangor (Federal Road 54). When opened, LATAR Expressway will provide for a faster, safer, smoother and non-congested drive that would take just a mere 18 minutes to accomplish from end-to-end.

Commuters will find easy access, convenience and connectivity to the many communities and townships along the LATAR Expressway.

It links the townships of Kuala Selangor, Assam Jawa, Ijok, Batang Berjuntai, Kota Puteri, Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, Bukit Jelutong, Sungai Buloh, Kundang, Rawang and Selayang.

The LATAR Expressway features four interchanges and three toll plazas on each side of the expressway. The four interchanges give faster and easy access into the existing Guthrie Corridor Expressway, PLUS North-South Expressway and the future West Coast Highway.

LATAR Expressway also features the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), CCTVs, Variable Message Signboards (VMS), traffic control devices, all weather road markers and emergency telephones that ensure the safety of commuters traversing the expressway.

Rest and service areas (R&R) can also be found on both sides of the expressway to add to the convenience of motorists wishing to take a break while plying the expressway.

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).

Currently, the completed sections of KLORR include the Guthrie Corridor Expressway linking to Elite Expressway from Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam to Saujana Putra, and the South Klang Valley Expressway from Saujana Putra to Kajang. In addition KLORR connects Kajang to Hulu Langat via the SILK Highway.

With the impending completion of LATAR Expressway, 75% of the KLORR network would be formed leading to the Government’s greater vision for traffic dispersal that reduces congestion in Kuala Lumpur city.

With the new LATAR Expressway in place, it is expected to spur further growth of property developments, townships and commerce in the region, just as it has during the construction period.

Construction of the LATAR Expressway began in October 2008 and is expected to complete in the near future. With inspections by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) to duly follow, it is hoped that motorists can enjoy the new expressway by the middle of this year.

The concession was awarded to KL-Kuala Selangor Expressway Berhad for a period of 40 years. Mudajaya Holdings Berhad is the turnkey contractor for this expressway who was awarded the job for a contract value amounting to RM958 million. The construction divided into two packages, comprises package 1 of the proposed design-and-build contract from Asam Jawa to Kundang, while package 2 is from Kundang to Templer's Park.

JOM MAKAN London

JOM MAKAN London to champion the Malaysian meal brand experience to 180,000 Londoners and the world

• Opening of a second outlet in just over a year for JOM MAKAN London, underscores success of Malaysia Kitchen Concept
• Malaysian restaurant chain JOM MAKAN UK caters to 15,000 patrons per month with a wide selection of delectable quick-service Malaysian meals
• Projected 2010 turnover of 1.9 million pounds sterling for both JOM MAKAN outlets with 180,000 meals served

LONDON --- Intensifying efforts to bring Malaysian cuisine to the forefront of international dining, JOM MAKAN based in the United Kingdom recently opened its second outlet in just over a year at Europe’s largest high-traffic shopping mall - Westfield Shopping Centre in London.

Westfield with 1.6 million sq ft of retail space had recorded over 20 million visitors since the mall opened, and offers an extremely strategic location for the Malaysian JOM MAKAN restaurant to sell the Malaysian meal brand experience. The mall is located just outside Shepherds Bush Underground station on the Central Line and nearby the BBC. Here JOM MAKAN attracts a ready-made dining traffic for Malaysian meals throughout the day.

Dishing quick-service meals in a matter of minutes, the restaurant serves delicious easy-to-prepare Halal Malaysian cuisine to the delight of 15,000 patrons a month at its two outlets in London.

“Annually, JOM MAKAN will sell the Malaysian meal brand experience to 180,000 Londoners and the world,” said Malaysian entrepreneur JOM MAKAN UK managing director Mohd Zuhri Abdullah.

In the process, dining at JOM MAKAN also sets out to impart greater awareness about Malaysia and what the country has to offer. The restaurant places attractive tablemats that tell more about Malaysia’s key attractions such as the wayang kulit, wau bulan, durians and the Petronas twin-towers.

Mohd Zuhri says he is delighted and honoured that JOM MAKAN at Westfield had been chosen for the launch of the Malaysia Kitchen Campaign 2010 in London recently in January when the British media and international celebrity chefs were served a sampling of the Malaysian fare offered by his restaurant.

JOM MAKAN serves satay, nasi lemak, beef rendang, fried kway teow, ayam percik, nasi ayam Hainan, nasi goreng, nasi beriyani, gado-gado, mee Hailam, mee goeng, mee kari, and sambal udang tumis to name a few. Even the popular warong-styled favourite teh tarik is served.

JOM MAKAN at Westfield replicates the concept of the first flagship outlet located at Pall Mall with an open kitchen and casual dinning experience emphasizing on fast and fresh food, and complying with the highest standards of cleaniness, health and hygiene.

The dedicated Malaysian restaurant represents a shining example underscoring the success of the ‘Malaysia Kitchen’ concept as its opening at the prestigious Westfield was scored on the merit of its performance as a successful Malaysian restaurant brand in cosmopolitan London.

JOM MAKAN has invested 800,000 Pounds Sterling for its latest Westfield restaurant. The 3,100 sq feet outlet consisting of a ground and first floor, offers a total seating capacity for 120 patrons.

 

“JOM MAKAN Westfield projects turnover to reach 1.2 million pounds sterling in its inaugural year of operations,” said Mohd Zuhri.

The opening of a second outlet brings JOM MAKAN’s total investment in the United Kingdom to about 1.9 million pounds sterling. Both outlets have a 25-year lease.

Promoting the concept that 'Now everyone can eat Malaysian food, everybody can cook Malaysian food', JOM MAKAN has created an enormous impact in London catering to 3,500 customers per week of which 85% are British locals.

Mohd Zuhri lauded the Government’s effort in pushing the Malaysian culinary brand experience in an aggressive manner that would encourage restaurant entrepreneurs to go big in the overseas food and beverage market.

He said, “The JOM MAKAN business model is well tested, and offers excellent prospects and quick expansion all over the world for the Malaysian meal brand experience. Whether in London, Paris or New York, a JOM MAKAN outlet can easily be replicated to operate within weeks.”

“We are looking to open a total of five outlets in the United Kingdom by 2012 and are also exploring opportunities to take the concept to the United States,” added Mohd Zuhri.

“With Malaysian Government support, we are positive we can succeed in the major cities of the world taking the Malaysian dining brand experience to great heights. With JOM MAKAN’s concerted push via the 15,000 customers each month, the restaurant chain is promoting Malaysia through gastronomy tourism in a big way.”

Both JOM MAKAN restaurants in London operate from 12 noon to 11 pm daily except Sundays (10 pm) and is manned by 30 staff at each outlet.

For more information on JOM MAKAN Restaurants, please log on to www.jommakan.co.uk.

Has Marks & Spencer Got It Right?

Blogger meirizka retorted out loud in response to my earlier posting saying,

"Marks & Spencer thinks they are creative enough by placing a five foot standee to banned palm oil. Their text "WE THINK" means they are unsure??? Get the facts right before condemning any party!"

meirizka also pointed me to http://www.ceopalmoil.com/what-deforestation/, a palm oil blog site where the Malaysian Palm Oil Council CEO Tan Sri Datuk Dr Yusof Basiron takes a blisterring attack against critics of the Malaysian palm oil industry in his paper - What Deforestation? The blog is reproduced here so more audiences including customers, visitors and Marks & Spencer can appreciate it ..

What Deforestation?

by Dr Yusof Basiron on October 31, 2009

Many critics of the Malaysian oil palm industry do not know that Malaysia agreed to generously keep aside its pristine natural tropical forests 15 years ago when the country pledged at the Rio Earth Summit to maintain a minimum of 50% of its land area under permanent forests. The policy behind the pledge remains intact as Malaysia today still has 56% of its area under permanent natural forests. Such a large percentage of forests is maintained mainly for conservation purposes and to support the forest industry which enables Malaysia to be a world major exporter of tropical timber. Besides providing more than adequate area for biodiversity and habitat needs including home for the orang utans and global warming mitigation purposes, the timber industry allows Malaysia to earn some RM 22.56 billion in 2008 or 3.4% of the country’s export earnings.

Timber production has gone through its own cycle of environmental attacks by NGOs and remedial measures have been put in place to ensure only sustainably managed timber and legal timber products are exported. The process of adopting an internationally recognised certification scheme for sustainable and legal timber has taken a long time to evolve as not all producer countries and importers are committed to adopt a common sustainability scheme. Malaysia has progressed much in these efforts as more and more of its timber are exported under some forms of certified timber scheme depending on the demand and agreement with the regional importers.

If Malaysia’s forests are already recognised to be sustainably managed, and not be allowed for conversion to other uses in order to stabilise the area, how then can the allegations still be made by NGOs linking oil palm cultivation with deforestation? Ignorance and wrong assumptions are to be blamed. Land developed for agriculture lies outside the permanent forest areas under the country’s land use policy. This means up to 50% of the country’s land area can be developed into various land uses for national development. As a developing country, Malaysia needs to develop its land to build cities and towns, villages and industrial parks, recreational grounds and water bodies, roads and highways and of course create agricultural areas to plant food and commodity crops for its people. Based on the guidance of the national land use policy, about 25% of the country is allocated to agriculture and the remaining 25 % is for the other uses keeping in mind that a minimum of 50 % of the country is already locked in for conservation purposes such as permanent natural forests.

Malaysia aspires to be a developed country by the year 2020 and like most developed countries, conversion of forests into agriculture took place decades or centuries ago. In Malaysia deforestion for agriculture was pioneered by the British in the early part of the 20th Century when forest areas zoned for agriculture were cleared to plant initially coffee, then rubber and later oil palm as dictated by the feasibility of producing such crops during that time. Even after Malaysia achieved independence in 1957, the development of agriculture continued, as until then the benefits of plantation agriculture were mainly enjoyed by the British who owned most of the large plantation companies. To allow the locals to enjoy the same benefits, FELDA was created. It was mandated to develop around 2 million acres of mostly forested land to resettle landless farmers. Professional surveyors from New Zealand were recommended by the World Bank to survey the forests to identify areas suitable for agriculture for FELDA to open up its land development schemes beginning in the 1950s with funds from the World Bank .

Like the developed countries, Malaysia too can give the excuses that the main deforestation of its land for conversion to agriculture has occured in the distant past, but unlike the situation in the developed countries, development was made under the supervision of international professional land surveyors and officially funded by the World Bank. For NGOs and their followers to come back years later to make allegations linking oil palm cultivation with deforestion in Malaysia is not proper, and probably decades too late. It is akin to barking up the wrong tree. The NGOs seem to suggest that deforestation in the developed countries was something that occured in the past beyond the control of their present governments. For example, the Romans were blamed for removing most of the forests of Britain. British NGOs should also admit that Malaysia’s pristine forests were mostly deforested by the British when they established their rubber and oil palm plantations during the first half of 20 th century. However, they did it in a civilised way by leaving a sizeable area of forests to be reserved as protected forests. That legacy led to the current policy of maintaining at least 50% of Malaysia as permanent natural forests.

The current land use policy as described above, brings many benefits to Malaysia especially when confronted with the challenges of the global warming debate. Firstly, with at least 50% of its forest intact, and up to 90 % of its agricultural land planted with tree crops, thus providing another 22% equivalent of the country’s land with tree cover, Malaysia can still claim to be a net carbon sink country based on currently available data. We are reminded recently that President Obama proudly announced that the USA is providing incentives to encourage reforesting of abandoned agricultural lands to promote more tree cover and mitigate global warming. It would not be too difficult to recognise that most of the agricultural lands in Malaysia have been planted with forest tree species, oil palm and rubber all along (without any incentives given!). That is why Malaysia is still a net carbon sink country despite having industrialised for the last 50 years.

The second benefit of our land use policy is our ability to face up to any allegations of deforestation especially when these are linked to the development of our agricultural sector. Malaysia’s forest to total land ratio is superior to that of most other countries, and so too is our agricultural land to total land area ratio. No one can accuse Malaysia of not providing enough forests to provide habitats to sustain the orang utans population as Sabah has almost 50% of its area under natural permanent forests and Sarawak has much higher. These are the two States of Malaysia where orang utans exist in the natural forests. The recently organised orang utan colloquium did recognise the need to reconnect the fragmented forests outside the main permanent forest using the concept of forest corridors to provide extra flexibility for the orang utans to travel back to the main forest after visiting the fragmented forests and nearby oil palm plantations where more food is available.

Thirdly we should be reminded that biodiversity is not supposed to be found in our agricultural land as is the case with all other countries. Our policy of conserving more than 50% of our land as permanent natural forests which include natural parks, wildlife sancturies and totally protected forest will provide for the need to conserve biodiversity. I can not help thinking how illogical some of the debates that are going on in the internet (some even by Professors) who grossly exaggerate that our agricultural lands, including oil palm and rubber plantations do not have as much biodiversity as the natural forests: why must our agricultural land including oil palm and rubber plantations have high biodiversity like the tropical forests? Are agricultural lands in the West having as high biodiversity as the temperate forests? I hope these groups will understand once and for all that when 50% of our land is locked in as permanent protected forests, preservation of biodiversity and wildlife habitats is assured. If not tell us how much more land, percentage wise, should be under forest and do the countries where these critiques come from provide their share of natural forests or plantation forests to protect the biodiversity and wildlife habitat requirements to the same high standards as adopted by Malaysia. Show us figures for comparison.

In a world where the EU and the USA would not agree to clean up their emitted CO2 unless developing countries do the same, Malaysia can claim to have already contributed its share by being a net carbon sink country. More than 80 % of the accumulated CO2 leading to the accelerated increase in global CO2 concentration was from years of industrial development taking place in the developed countries. Now the EU is proposing that developing countries must commit to reduce their emissions, or else there will be no agreement at the coming Copenhagen Climate Change meeting, meaning that the EU and USA would not clean up the accumulated emissions that they have caused in the past which are contributing to the present global warming tendency. I am sure the developing countries at the Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen in December will insist on equitable responsibility for the developed countries to first clean up their massive past emissions before commitments for future emission reduction can be shared by all countries.

The same argument is made in the deforestation debate by the western NGOs who are asking developing countries to preserve their forests while developed countries need not have to do anything because they have already deforested most of their forests. Is Malaysia supposed to help clean up the emission of the developed countries (due to their past overdeforestation) by keeping a maximum area of forests even though the country is already a net carbon sink country,( ie has taken care of its own CO2 emissions by keeping enough forests)? Some developed countries like Canada is still deforesting for agricultural development , where up to 10 million hectares are planned to be deforested in the near future. Why do the NGOs remain silent on such deforestation. How many times have the NGOs cited Canada for continuing to deforest up to 100,000 hectares per year for agricultural developments (and another 10 million hectares are still planned to be deforested), compared to accusations levelled at Malaysia where deforestation has essentially stopped 15 years ago and the total area developed for oil palm in the last 100 years is only 4.5 million hectares or less than 0.09 % of total agricultural land area of the world.

If Malaysia is already a net cabon sink country it should be appreciated for its contribution to mitigate global warming. It also means that its land use policy is working optimally to benefit the planet, the people and the national development objectives. The NGOs should not ask Malaysia to do more than its equitable share in mitigating global warming, or providing biodiversity and wildlife habitat conservation. We have already sacrificed greatly in maintaining a large percentage of our land as forest. Revenue generated from natural forests is 33 times lower than the revenue if the land is used for agriculture for oil palm or rubber cultivation. At present, our sacrifice for keeping an above average percentage of forests is not being compensated by the rich net CO2 emitter countries of the world; our role as a carbon sink country in helping to clean up the CO2 emitted by developed countries remains unappreciated; our palm oil, a produce of our agricultural industry continues to be smeared. It is hard to make sense of these illogical situations unless we agree that the ulterior motives by the EU and their NGOs are to block the import trade of a competitive product like palm oil, or allow the NGOs to collect toll money by introducing unnecessary certification schemes or shall we agree that greed and double standards have overtaken fairplay in order for some to survive in this modern world.

Is Marks & Spencer Anti Palm Oil?

I wonder if our Deputy Prime Minister YAB Tan Sri Dato' Haji Muhyiddin Bin Mohd Yassin had the opportunity to visit a Marks & Spencer store in London during his five day official visit to the UK. I don't think he would be pleased to see this five-foot standee that parades in strategic points at the store. Any customer or visitor to Marks & Spencer would think that palm oil is grown at the expense of rain forests. The likely result is that they would be anti palm oil in their consumption habits. I just wonder if Marks & Spencer is part of a bigger global campaign against palm oil? It has its sinister connotations.