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THE Penampang Municipal Council and City Hall have vowed to step up efforts to maintain the grills embedded into roads under their respective maintenance.

The grills were put in place to facilitate efforts to clear the drains running beneath these stretches.

Both authorities were responding to feedback about the traffic hazards posed by problems with the grills at the junction to Imperial Villa from Jalan Penampang and the turn-off to a commercial area near SJK (C) Che Hwa in Kolombong.

The Penampang driver said the road around the two grills was badly damaged. Owing to this, these structures were no longer sitting properly.

His counterpart from Kolombong, on the hand, feared that road-users might wind up getting their tyres stuck in the exposed section of the stretch where the grill had given way. 

He said there was every possibility of this happening during a downpour or at night when visibility was reduced.

These individuals provided Hotline with the pertinent details regarding their grievances. This information was forwarded separately to the Council and City Hall.

A Council spokesman said two new grills were put in place on the junction to Imperial Villa.

“The previous ones had sunken in the road and looked as if it could give way at any time,” he said. 

“We suspect that this may have happened because of heavy traffic on the stretch.” 

He said a contractor and his two workers attended to the grills on Monday.

“This emergency work involved rebuilding the housing for the grills and cementing over the damaged sections of the surrounding asphalt.

“A technician had to squeeze into the space beneath the road, at one point, just to weld the metal frame on which the grills sat.”

When asked how often the covered drains and walkways around municipality were maintained, the spokesman said this was done as and when it became necessary to do so.

“We generally rely on public feedback to determine when these amenities need to be attended to. It also depends on whether the repairs are going to be a ‘big’ job or a ‘small’ one.”

He said the former was subject to constraints on the funding and manpower needed to carry out the work.

“The ‘small’ jobs can usually be accomplished within a matter of hours.”

Nevertheless in light of what had transpired, he said, the Council had called on its staff to be more mindful of any irregularities involving the covered drains around Penampang.

City Hall called on its personnel to do likewise when it came to the covered drains within its rating-area.

A spokesman for its Engineering Department said a check was made of the road to the commercial area near the Kolombong Primary School, shortly after the agency learned about the missing grill.

“Our staff confirmed the presence of the exposed section on the road,” he said. 

“They noted a few broken branches had been put in the hole to forewarn motorists to swerve around this part of the stretch.”

He said a team of technicians returned to the site the next day to put a new grill in place in the affected section of the road.

“A new metal frame was built on the periphery of the exposed section to ensure that the grill fit tightly in place,” he said.

He said structural maintenance was carried out on the covered drains, which belonged to City, when such work was warranted.