Malaysia gets its biggest bridge

The preparation of sketches and drawings for the biggest bridge in Malaysia is well under way - a bridge project won by COWI.

Malaysia’s biggest bridge is now finally on its way to becoming a reality. It is COWI’s first bridge project in the country. The bridge over Sungai Johor has been underway for many years, the first steps having been taken as far back as 1997, but owing to the Asian currency crisis the project was brought to a halt.

Now, however, the construction company Ranhill has made serious inroads into what will be Malaysia’s biggest bridge, in about 2½ years, 20 km or so north of Singapore.

Three-phase project

The bridge project is divided into three phases. Basic design will be complete in mid-September, then follows a five-month period of detailed design, after which just under three years have been allocated for the actual building work, which Ranhill itself will take charge of.

”Throughout the construction period we will be available to lend assistance if it’s needed. And we always have the option of sending off one or two people who can monitor the project closely.” That’s the message from Lars Lundorf Nielsen, Project Manager at COWI.

Separate design and drawing production

The bridge will be a pilot project in terms of the working method adopted for the design.

”Normally we’re able to walk down the corridors in Copenhagen with sketches for the CAD people in our hands, but we’ve separated the design team from drawing production here. That means we have two project design sites, one here in Copenhagen and one in Kuala Lumpur, where they draw everything. So exchanging sketches and drawings is done electronically. We haven’t used this method to the same extent before,” Lars Lundorf Nielsen explains.

Need for close communication

A separate design team calls for close communication in order to prevent misunderstandings.

”Therefore, we have three Ranhill engineers located in Copenhagen for six months, acting as a linkage, so that we can make sure they get the drift of what we mean,” says Lars Lundorf Nielsen.

At the same time, an independent design company will be looking things over and letting us have their comments.

A trademark

COWI expects the project to open the door to other potential future projects.

”There’s quite a bit of growth in the area, and the bridge is a large project that has not gone unnoticed - not just in Malaysia but all over the Far East. So together with previous bridge projects on which we’ve been consultants in China and Hong Kong, we have a good reference list that others are looking at,” Lars Lundorf Nielsen tells us.

By Gitte Roe Eriksen
Published: 29.09.2005

Record-setting central cable plan

The Sungai Johor bridge is a cable-stayed bridge. Its total length is 1.9 km - with a main span of 500 metres. The bridge is being built with cables in the central plane, extending just under 1,000 metres. It is the first time a bridge is being built with a central cable plane over such a long span.

Ranhill, the client, will be operating the Sungai Johor Bridge for 30 years as a toll bridge. After that, the government will take over the bridge.