SIBU: The Sibu Airport Interchange along the Pan Borneo Highway is expected to be completed by March next year. LBU construction manager for Sibu section, Zainol Ramli, said work is now focused on constructing the bridge structure which is about 175m long.
“With the beam launch fully completed sometime in the middle of this year, we immediately started the deck slab work. This is expected to continue until March next year before we install the road furniture. At the same time, we are also constructing the bridge decks for this flyover. So far, we have completed three out of the seven spans,” said Zainol.
Once completed, the flyover will make road travel to and from Bintulu to Sibu Airport and Sibu Jaya a breeze.
The entire flyover, with reinforced wall sections before and after the bridge proper, is close to 300m long.
As for the Sibu Airport roundabout, Zainol revealed that the single lane would be fully opened to the public by next month, while the second lane will be opened by December.
By then, travel from Sibu town to Sibu Airport will be back to normal as road users will no longer have to take the temporary U-turn created at the crossroad junctions to Bintulu.
Before this U-turn was made, motorists had to use the Old Oya Road to go to the airport. Both the U-turn and earlier route through Old Oya Road was to enable the construction of the Sibu Airport Interchange/flyover.
Work on the interchange which started in mid-2017 was affected initially due to soft ground conditions.
Instead of proceeding with construction work based on the original drawings, the contractor had to spend time and resources to treat the ground first by doing piled embankment to stabilise the road foundation.
The main contractor for the Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak package 07 between Bintangor and Julau, Sibu Airport Interchange and Sungai Kua, and Batang Durin Bridge is HSL DMIA JV Sdn Bhd. The total distance is approximately 76km.
