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CITY HALL plans to upgrade the roads around a Karamunsing commercial property and has called on the government concessionaire to repair a stretch in a Likas neighbourhood.

This follows feedback from a Sadong Jaya bank teller and Taman Likas Jaya homeowner about the lack of maintenance carried out on these roads.

The former spoke out about uneven surface of the stretches which circled the different shophouse blocks, while the latter was unhappy about rough patches on her housing road where the asphalt had eroded away.

The drivers expressed their frustrations over the added expenditure they had incurred from constantly having to bring their vehicles to a workshop.  

Their respective road woes had exacted a pricey toll on the alignment of their automobiles, according to them.

The duo separately provided Hotline with the pertinent details, regarding their grievances, which were forwarded to the agency.

A spokeswoman for City Hall’s Traffic and Transport Department (TTD) said a check was made of Lorong Ikan Juara 1, Lorong Ikan Juara 2, Lorong Ikan 3 and Lorong Ikan Juara 4, shortly after it learned about the problem in Sadong Jaya.

“Our RPG [Road Patching Gang] confirmed the teller’s report about the road woes,” she said. 

“They noticed that depressions had formed in many places and some of them were filled with rainwater.”

She explained that “interlocking paver blocks” had been laid on the surface of these Karamunsing stretches, instead of asphalt.

“The paver blocks were chosen for their aesthetic value but the designer of the commercial centre didn’t account for fact that the blocks would need a strong base to support them.

“When the roads here were first built, crusher run was used as their base. 

“This material hasn’t proven up to the job of supporting the weight of many of the blocks in the long run.” 

She said the agency was weighing up the possibility of having the crusher run replaced with concrete.

A concrete base had been laid beneath Jalan Bandaran in the City, according to her, where interlocking paver blocks had been used to cover the surface of the road.

“We have not encountered any difficulties caused by depressions forming in this stretch.”

She cautioned, however, that action to remove the crusher run in Sadong Jaya and have it changed to crusher run would involve a substantial cost. 

“We are still trying to decide on the most feasible means of implementing the road improvement in this part of Karamunsing.”

The spokeswoman said City Hall would also endeavour to deal with the ponding problem around the commercial centre as this was contributing to the road woes.

“We may have a cross culvert put beneath the surface of some of the roads to channel away the run off. 

“Only then can we proceed with rest of the refurbishment effort.”

She said the Department would proceed with the work once it had finalised the particulars and secured the necessary funding to do so.

In the case of Lorong Kenari 5, the spokeswoman said the government concessionaire had been informed about the damage to the road.

“Our RPG went to this part of Taman Likas Jaya, after we had verified that the affected stretch was listed in our road-register,” she said.

“They observed that some parts of the road were not flat. The asphalt in these sections appeared to have been eaten away.”

She said these technicians also observed cracks running up other sections of the stretch. 

The company was verbally apprised of these observations, shortly after this check, according to her.

“We urged the management to attend to the road as soon as possible.”