Slope Engineering Design and Construction Practice in Malaysia
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SLOPE ENGINEERING DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICE IN MALAYSIA GUE See-Sew1 & WONG Shiao-Yun2 1Managing Director, G&P Geotechnics Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2Associate, G&P Geotechnics Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia website: www.gnpgeo.com.my Abstract: Slope engineering has been the main focus for housing and infrastructure developments on hilly terrain in Malaysia in recent years, as a result of a shortage of flat or undulating land. There have been a number of landslides in recent years since the notorious landslide incident occurred in 1993 which resulted in the collapse of Block 1 of the Highland Towers and claimed 48 lives. Improvements in slope engineering and slope management have been noticeable. One of them was the establishment of the Slope Engineering Branch under the Public Works Department (PWD) in 2004, after the rock fall failure at Bukit Lanjan near Kuala Lumpur in 2003 which resulted in a 6 months highway closure. The Slope Engineering Branch has also commissioned and developed a “National Slope Master Plan Study” which aims at improving current practices of slope engineering and slope management. This paper presents the current engineering practice in slope design and construction as well as highlighting the initiatives for developments in Malaysia for slope engineering and slope management. Keywords : Slope Management; Slope Engineering; Policy and Legislation; Structure professional undergraduate education; Construction Control 1 INTRODUCTION Malaysia is a tropical country with an average annual Malaysia is located in Southeast of Asia, occupying about rainfall of around 2550mm, which is above the global 330,200 km2. The entire country is divided into two main average. The highest annual, daily and hourly rainfall ever regions, namely Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. recorded in the history of Malaysia is 5293.4mm, 929mm Peninsular Malaysia lies just south of Thailand and north of and 322.6mm respectively (NAHRIM, 2008). The country is Singapore; while East Malaysia is at the northern one-third also subjected to southwest (May to September) and of the island of Borneo bordering Indonesia and Brunei (as northeast (November to March) monsoons, during which the shown in Figure 1). With a population of about 28.7 million maximum rainfall may go up to 4200mm. The annual (updated by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on 25th rainfall distributed is as shown in Figure 2. July 2009), the country has a multiracial society with a racial composition consisting of Malay, Chinese, Indigenous In Malaysia, approximately 60% of the total areas are People, Indian and others at a proportion of 50%, 24%, 11%, coastal plains and inland lowlands of undulating terrain 7% and 8%, respectively. below RL300m. Meanwhile, about 35% of the total land consists of hilly ranges at Reduced Level between RL300m and RL1300m and approximately 5% consists of Mountains above RL1300m. An overview of mountain ridge distribution is shown in Figure 3. However, from an engineering point of view, the definition of hilly terrain should be coupled with slope gradients. Therefore, based on the current implementation policy of hillsite developments, slope terrain classification of individual development is mandatory to gauge the extent of necessary geotechnical engineering input. Figure 1: Geographical map of Malaysia (a): Peninsular Malaysia (b): East Malaysia Figure 2: Mean annual rainfall (mm) in Malaysia (after NAHRIM) Quaternary deposits/alluvium also surround the whole coastal area and some of the main river basins, which are mainly deposited by clay, silt, sand and peat. Approximately 40% of the east coast area of Sabah is dominated by slump breccias and sequences of interbedded mudstones, tuff, tuffaceous sandstone, shale, conglomerate. Meanwhile, the northern part of east coast area is dominated by Labang formation, with the main lithology of sandstone, mudstone, and limestone lenses (Tongkul, 2005). The central portion of Sabah to the south bordering Kalimantan in the east coast area is largely covered by Miocene formations consisting of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate, limestone, and rare beds of coal and marl (JMG, 1985). Approximately 60% of west coast part of Sabah is dominated by Crocker Figure 3: Overview of mountain ridge distribution in formation. Crocker formation represents flysch-type Malaysia sandstone, shale, agglomerate, limestone, breccia, and siltstone with rare tuff (Tongkul, 2005). 2 GENERAL GEOLOGY The geology of Sarawak is recognized as belonging to three distinct provinces, corresponding to three main geographic 2.1 Peninsular Malaysia regions, namely West Sarawak, Central and North Sarawak. Peninsular Malaysia is divided into 4 geological domains. West Sarawak is mainly underlain by the early Cretaceous Langkawi Island, Perlis and northern Kedah represent one Mélange and in places underlain by Tertiary sedimentary whole domain (Foo, 1983). The remaining areas are the basin and Tertiary intrusive (Chand, 1993). West Sarawak is Western Belt, Central Belt, and Eastern Belt (Khoo & Tan, made up of Early Cretaceous Mélange. The mélange is 1983). Sedimentary rocks are the most common rock type consisting of Sarawak block which is made up of schist, limestone and volcanic rock. The tightly folded and faulted across all domains. Igneous rocks, usually granite, are also sedimentary rocks of the mélange are mainly the alternations frequent, and form most of the mountain ranges. of shale Pedawan Formation and the Bau Limestone Formation (Tongkul, 2005). This region is rich in economic The general geological formation found in Peninsular minerals such as gold, silver and bauxite. Central Sarawak is Malaysia consists of the following components: underlain by a very thick, tightly folded turbidite. These are Shale, Mudstone, Siltstone, Phyllite, Slate, Hornfels mainly the alternations of phyllite and slate interbedded with Sandstone/Metasandstone sandstone. The northern part of Sarawak is underlain by Conglomerate Neogene of the Northwest Borneo Basin. Limestone/Marble Schist 3 BACKGROUND OF HILLSITE DEVELOPMENT Hillsite development in Malaysia started from Fraser Hill The central mountainous ridges are mainly underlined with (mean altitude of RL1524m) which was developed as a Interbedded sandstone, siltstone and shale. Meanwhile, the tourist destination in 1917 by the British. Another popular coastal areas are underlined with Marine deposits consisting highland destiny is the Cameron Highlands. At an altitude of of clay, silt, sand and peat. For Selangor state in particular, RL1500m, Cameron highlands started development in 1925, which is nearest to Kuala Lumpur, where construction famous for its richness in flora and fauna. Today, the activities are most active, a wide range of geological highlanders are mainly involved in the tourism and formations are detected, consisting of the following: agricultural industries. From there, hillsite development has • Alluvium gained in popularity for the past three decades in densely • Granite Formation (Vein Quartz, Granitic Rock) populated cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang. As the area • Kenny Hill Formation (Quartzite and Phyllite) of flat and undulating lands within these cities became • Kajang Formation (Schist and Phyllite) limited, housing/commercial developments moved gradually • Kuala Lumpur Limestone into hilly terrain, and often for high-end developments for • Hawthornden Formation (Phyllite and Schist) their exclusivity, fresher air and better scenery. 2.2 East Malaysia Meanwhile, from another prospective, hillsite development East Malaysia consists of the states of Sabah and Sarawak. also includes the construction of illegal squatters, where Active tectonism around Borneo since the Mesozoic has temporary accommodations were built on highly hazardous resulted in a geologically complex structure in the region. hills and mountains. This group of people are mainly Sabah can be divided into two major areas, east coast and involved in the agricultural and forestry industries and are west coast, where the Crocker Range is located. Both the highly vulnerable as they have virtually no awareness of the areas are dominated by sedimentary rocks. The east coast possible risks of non-engineered slopes. This phenomenon is area consists of volcanic and volcano-clastic materials, particularly prominent in Sabah in which logging is one of which consist mainly of clastic sediments (Chand 1993). the main sources of income. Figure 4: General geological map of Peninsular Malaysia (by Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia) Figure 5: General geological map of East Malaysia (by Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia) Figure 6: Collapse of Block 1 of the Highland Tower Apartments 80 71 68 70 60 50 Incidents 39 40 36 Landslide of 30 22 23 No. 18 17 16 15 16 15 20 14 11 10 8 9 7 6 7 10 5 5 3 3 3 4 3 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 0 1961 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year Figure 7: Number of landslide events in Malaysia, 1961 – 2008 (after PWD (2008) with additional landslide statistics for the year 2008 by the Authors) However, concerns and awareness on the hazards of hillsite Table 1 gives some significant historical landslide events developments only begun after the collapse of Block 1 of the th and Figure 7shows the total number of reported landslides Highland Towers on 11 December 1993 that killed 48 between 1961 and 2008 in Malaysia.