SMART Tunnel Conference_08.07.08

I attended the Conference on SMART Tunnel held at Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya on 8th and 9th July 2008. This conference which was organized by the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM) was officiated by Dato Ir Hj Ahmad Husini bin Suleiman, Director General, Department of Irrigation Malaysia.

One the first day of the conference, papers were presented by Engineers involved in the project followed by a half day site visit to the Motorway Control Centre (MCC) and Stormwater Control Centre (SCC) on the next day.

Brief Project Description

SMART, an acronym for Stormwater Management And Road Tunnel, was originally conceived to mitigate the flooding problems in Kuala Lumpur. It also provides alternative route to relieve traffic congestion between Kampung Pandan roundabout and Sungai Besi airfield along KL-Seremban Highway.

The total cost of the project is RM 1.93 billion and is jointly funded by the government which is the project owner, and the JV Contractor (MMC-Gamuda JV) financing the road tunnel section and allowed to collect toll for 40 year period.

Location map

Project Components of SMART
1. Intake System
- Debris removal system in Sungai Ampang and Sungai Klang upstream of the confluence of two rivers.

Debris Removal System

- River flow diversion system complete with a 4-bay diversion weir structure (radial gates).
Radial Gates at Sungai Klang

- Holding Pond with storage capacity of 600,000 cubic metres located at the upstream of the tunnel. Flow is directed into this pond via the off take structure.


Holding Pond at Kampung Berembang, Ampang

2. Tunnel Bypass
- A 9.7 km bypass stormwater tunnel with internal diameter of 11.8m stormwater diversion cum double deck road traffic tunnel. The tunnel has a storage capacity of 1 million cubic metres when it is full.

- A vehicular tunnel enters the diversion tunnel system about 4.6 km downstream from the holding pond and exits a further 3 km downstream. The section of the tunnel where the vehicular traffic is included have 3 components i.e. two traffic decks and a lower channel for stormwater flow.
Cross section sketch of tunnel

Tunnel Operation Modes


3. Outlet system
- A storage pond with a storage capacity 0f 1.4 million cubic metres is located at the downstream end of the tunnel i Taman Desa.

- A set of twin box culverts, gated at both ends, conveys the discharge from the storage reservoir to Sungai Kerayong whenever the water level in the river is at a permissible level.

The second day of the conference included a site visit and briefing at the Motor Control Centre(MCC) and Stormwater Control Centre (SCC).

HSSI participants: Raj, Mr. Kun, Somnath & Nor Affiza (behind middle) attending briefing.

The SMART motorway is monitored around the clock at MCC near the Bulatan Kg Pandan.
MCC Control room

The SCC houses the SMART Flood Detection System (FDS) t Kg. Berampang in Ampang. The FDS not only provides real time hydrological information as well as forecast flood mode, but also serves to monitor the status of all the SMART components.
Flood mode dispalyed at SCC monitor.
Monitoring of hydraulics information at SCC