Bukit Bintang MRT tunnels completed

KUALA LUMPUR: Construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tunnels beneath Jalan Bukit Bintang was completed today.
Project director Marcus Karakashian said the two special tunnel boring machines (TBM) from Germany had helped them to handle the challenging geology of the area.
"Due to the difficult soil condition in the area, a variable density TBM was specially designed to deal with problems in the digging," he said. The machine, which is the first of its kind, started to dig from the Cochcrane MRT site in May last year.
As of today, the tunnelling works was 88% complete and has covered the most difficult area, which is near Bukit Bintang.
Expressing satisfaction over completion of the tunnelling works in the busiest and most difficult areas in Bukit Bintang with minimal incidence, he said the most difficult challenges when digging in the area were the different types of soil and having to cut ground anchors.
The soil beneath the Bukit Bintang area encompasses formations which made it difficult for tunnelling works and balancing the soil structure. Two sinkholes had occurred due to the tunnelling process earlier this year. The overall progress of the underground project is at about 70%, and the MRT project is expected to be completed on July 31, 2017.