Malaysian water transfer project contract award

The Malaysian Government has awarded a EUR 375M (USD 483.9M) tunnelling contract as part of the Pahang-Selangor Water Transfer Scheme.

The Shimizu, Nishimatsu, IJM and UEMB joint venture presented the winning bid.

The tunnel will run for 45km at 5.2m in diameter. Three TBMs will be used for excavation of the tunnel with four drives close to the portals excavated using NATM.

Rock encountered has been mostly hard granite with overburden ranging from 20m to a maximum of 1200m. Four adits will be sited along the route. The TBM was supplied by Robbins specially designed to deal with the geological conditions.

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Government of Malaysia have funded the project.

Excavation progress is currently at around 20 per cent complete should be finished by the end of May 2014, lasting a total of 60 months.