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CITY HALL will step up efforts to maintain the covered drains under its jurisdiction, including those around a commercial centre in the State Capital, while Sabah Electricity (SE) has cordoned off the exposed sections road reserve outside a Likas church.

This follows mounting concern about the pedestrian hazards posed by “the holes” in a pavement which has been built over a drain behind Block B of the shophouses in the Segama area and a verge outside the fence for St Simon Catholic Church.

Among those put at risk at the latter are churchgoers and students who attend Shan Tao Secondary School.

An officeworker in the Sadong Jaya area, meanwhile, hopes that the Public Works Department (PWD) will act to safeguard the wellbeing of those going on foot to a bank in the area as many of concrete slabs, placed over the roadside drain beside the premises, are damaged.

Hotline forwarded the location of the “danger zones” at these locations to the respective parties 

A City Hall spokesman said Engineering Department staff confirmed the presence of the exposed section in the pavement above the drain, off Jalan Padas in Kota Kinabalu, during a check which was made shortly after the agency was contacted by the media.

“The hole was immediately covered with a piece of plywood,” he said. 

“Some security tape was affixed to the surface of this temporary cover, in the form of an ‘X’, to caution pedestrians against stepping on the damaged section.”

He said this was the most that could be done for the time being, while the agency arranged to have the necessary repairs made.

Meanwhile, SE is keeping an eye on the ongoing effort to install transmission lines beneath the verge on Jalan Punai Tanah in Likas.

A spokesman for the company said this work was being carried out as part a project to upgrade the 132kilovolt Tanjung Lipat PMU [“Pencawang Masuk Utama (Main Intake Substation)”].

“There are two sites on the road shoulder where power lines are being put in place,” he said. 

“These sections of on the reserve land have been left uncovered as the project is still in progress.”

He said the declined to elaborate on when the project would be completed, saying that it also involved SE’s Karamunsing PMU.

DAMIAN of Likas voiced his concern about two holes in the verge on Jalan Punai Tanah between the church and the school.

These danger spots didn’t sit easy with him, as he didn’t want a repeat of a recent fatal incident in Lahad Datu where a car fell into an open sewer pit

He said the exposed sections, which had red tubes placed inside, had been on the roadside “for years”.

“I believe they were dug by contractors who failed to fill them in once they were done,” he said.

Damian said the exposed sections posed a danger to motorists and pedestrians, especially at night.

He said it “would be great if the relevant parties could have the holes filled”.

“The contractors who didn’t finish their work properly should also be admonished and reminded that they are playing with people’s lives when they leave unfinished business like this behind.”

The spokesman said a team of its technicians checked on the condition of the exposed sections earlier this month.

“They changed the security tape which had previously been put up around the two sites and more plastic barricades were placed around one of the holes. 

“Caution signs were put up near the affected areas to alert road-users about the irregularities which lay in their path.”

Where Jalan Kemajuan was concerned, the PWD has called on its concessionaire to accord priority to replacing any missing or damaged slabs on the walkway. 

A spokesman for the agency said there was a drain running several metres below the road-shoulder.

“The company, tasked with looking after this stretch, is in the midst of fabricating new concrete covers,” he said. 

“They hope to have the replacement slabs put in place soon.”

When asked how often the covered drains and walkways in this part of Karamunsing were maintained, he said this was done as and when it became necessary to do so.

“To this end, our concessionaire has been asked to check on the condition of these structures regularly. We have called on the management to do what it can to ensure that the public safety on Jalan Kemajuan is not compromised.”