Management of Risk at The Sungai Sarawak Barrage

Abstract

The Sungai Sarawak barrage is part of a novel “three in one” infrastructure in Southeast Asia and is the first of its kind in Malaysia. It consists of five radial barrage gates of 25 x 12 meters in dimension with 30 x 4 meters piers in between each gate. At the South end of barrage gate 5 is a 120 x 25 meters shiplock as shown in Figure 1. Over these two infrastructures is a 435 x 20 meters, four lane bridges. A combination of such infrastructures is not an ideal concoction as each has its own inherited hazard and operational risk. This project also diverts the natural flow of the Sungai Sarawak, by closing two of its tributaries (Sungai Santubong and Sungai Sarawak) towards a three in one manmade infrastructure. The barrage is operating in a harsh environment with “inherent” risks to the operators, innocent customers, and stakeholders. Diverting a river from its original flow will disturb the riverine regime let alone two river tributaries being closed and diverted through a manmade infrastructure. During the early stages of operation there were many hazards and risks to be identified and the operator had to solve through painful experiences such as near miss accidents, minor accidents, casualty with deaths are some of the lessons learn. This paper shares the teething problems on these risks and how they were solved. mitigated and reduce