City Hall has been taking proactive steps to mitigate tree-related hazards around its rating area since the beginning of the year, with a total of 25 dead or diseased trees felled so far.
A spokeswoman for the agency’s Landscaping Department said four different teams with its “Unit Pengurusan Pokok (Tree Management Unit, TMU)” removed 15 trees in January, nine in February and one this month.
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“This work was carried out as part of ‘Ops Pokok Sihat, Bandar Selamat (Healthy Trees, Safer City Operation)’,” she said.
“The Operation aims to safeguard the public from the potential danger posed by falling trees or broken branches.”
She said the TMU had made it their goal this year to ensure that all the trees, maintained by City Hall, were safe and healthy.
“The Unit’s staff will check on the health of these trees regularly and will prune them according to a schedule to minimise the safety risks posed by this greenery.”
She said any trees deemed to be a high risk would be chopped down, while those of a low risk would be trimmed.
“By ‘high risk’ we mean dead trees or those which are diseased,” she explained.
The spokeswoman said 15 separate checks had been made by the TMU teams between Jan 9 and March 4 at 12 various locations under the agency’s purview.
These locations included sections of Taman Malawa Jaya Sepanggar Phase 1C-3, Jalan Udan Inanam, Jalan Tuaran (Likas), The Inanam Bus Terminal, Jalan Tuaran Bypass, Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, Jalan Lintas (City Mall), the Anjung Senja foodcourt, Gaya Street, Jalan Belia (UTC), Jalan Lintas Square Luyang and Kepayan Petagas.
Meanwhile, Landscaping staff dealt with the overgrown trees a 636metre stretch in one part of the Inanam recently, according to her.
This follows feedback from a driver about the branches of the trees in the middle of the stretch leading to Kingfisher Cove. He said some of the branches had apparently become so long that they scratched the body of vehicles moving to and from this housing area.
The motorist provided Hotline with the pertinent details regarding his grievance. This information was forwarded to City Hall.
The spokeswoman said eight staff with the TMU went to Kingfisher Cove, shortly after the agency was contacted by the media.
“They used chainsaws to cut the overgrown branches of the trees on either side of the road between the Kingfisher Cove and Riverside roundabouts,” she said.
“Any creepers and offshoots of existing trees which had sprung up were also removed.”
A skymaster and eight-tonne open truck was deployed to facilitate this effort, according to him.
She said the team worked late into the evening to remove the trimmings but could not remove all this waste in one go. So, they went back a few days later to try and finish the job.”
EDUARD, who lives in Kingfisher Cove, hoped City Hall would consider changing the existing greenery on the divider.
“The present trees and shrub species are not suitable for the median,” he said.
“The branches grow outwards instead of upwards. To avoid scratching our cars, we have to drive on the white lines which indicate the boundaries of the two lanes on the road.”
He was of the opinion that trees with a smaller trunk and a canopy which grew out of the top might be better choice for the divider.
“Such trees would require less maintenance and provide more shade for road users.”
