Ranggu bridge issue will be resolved, rep assures

Osman

TAWAU: Balung assemblyman Datuk Osman Jamal has assured villagers that the Ranggu bridge issue will be resolved, and disagreed with reports and statements in local dailies and Facebook accusing him of not carrying out his duty as an assemblyman and calling for his resignation.

Explaining the issue on the Ranggu bridge in a press conference yesterday at the Public Works Department (PWD) here, Osman said he brought up the matter of Balung social development that includes infrastructures for Balung in the state legislative assembly in 2018 and has brought the Balung Bridge matter up to the State Infrastructure Development Minister, Datuk Peter Anthony in February this year who agreed and instructed PWD state director to give attention to the matter and the following week the deputy director and two assistant directors visited the site and directed the district engineer to prepare the Bill Quantity (BQ) that was completed in April to be submitted to the minister concerned to ascertain where the funding will come from.

An allocation of about RM600,000 has been approved in principle according to the BQ and was confirmed by the State Assistant Finance Minister, he said.

Osman further explained that on October 1, the contract was issued to the contractor and he prayed that the project will be on schedule which is expected to be completed on Jan 16, 2021 but due to the alternative route to be completed for road users, the start work was postponed to November 25, 2019.

He said the first work was to demolish the wooden bridge and clearing the area which was the scope of work agreed between PWD and the contractor. But in taking down the bridge and clearing the project site there were many complaints from those using the detour road due to the road condition and Osman said he personally went there to see and found out that it was true as one vehicle will have to give way to another vehicle.

The road shoulder is too high and can damage the undercarriage of villagers’ smaller vehicles, and there are no street lights, he said adding due to that he held a dialogue together with PWD and the Ranggu community of about 100 people who requested for a new suitable and safe detour for them to use while waiting for the new bridge to be completed.

“I never fail my duty as a YB of Balung, if anybody wants to know, I have my own program and records of my visits meeting the people and attended 57 functions in Balung from January to March,” he said.

He added the alternative temporary bridge and the concrete bridge will be constructed simultaneously at the same time, adding the allocation of RM600,000 is ready for compensation as the project will go through three private owned lands.

Osman had pointed out this issue to Peter to fulfil the people’s desire on this matter. The minister agreed and instructed JKR to put emphasis on this issue.

He said the Ranggu bridge was selected as the economic stimulation for Balung among eleven projects there.

Osman said a meeting will be held every two weeks between PWD and the contractor so that the bridge will be completed faster and a PWD WhatsApp group was created for the Balung community to convey their complaints direct to PWD as a way forward instead of airing it in social media.

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