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SMART, the flood mitigation project for Kuala Lumpur city centre has been open to public for about a month now. After the initial trial, they’ll start charging a toll rate to use the tunnel access into and out of the city. The toll rates have yet to be set and announced. However, my focus this time round is not so much on the toll, but on the aspect of the tunnel related to flooding.

When I say flooding, I don’t mean the mitigation of floods. No. The tunnel is more like the cause of flooding. Over the last weekend, it’s been raining rather heavily around the Klang Valley. On Saturday, after a particularly heavy downpour, I was headed over to WL’s place and decided to turn into the tunnel. Was I surprised to see the water levels as I turned into the tunnel.

Where the Federal Highway/Seremban Highway road meets the Sungai Besi Road (just before the old air base), there’s a short curve and a split. The road dips sharply and on either sides, the constructors have built concrete embankments. When it rained, the short strip of road was turned into a swimming pool. The water level was at least knee deep and spanned two lanes (both the non-toll road and the entrance to SMART).

Further down the road, there were three cars stalled by the road side, having flooded their engines and carburetor trying to pass through the flood water. I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Not at the poor souls who had broken down. For them, I felt pity. However, I laughed at the shoddy work that had caused the flooding in the first place. This following cracking beams and leaky ceilings. What’s next on the list?

Inside, the tunnel was bone dry. Ironic to think that a flood mitigation system winds up being the cause of a flood. The cause was obvious. Poor drainage and improper planning. The concrete embankment effectively sealed off any egress for the rain waters and the sloping road acted as a pool for water collection. I wonder if they thought about this problem when doing the actual construction. I wonder if they’ll rectify this soon? I won’t be surprised if they don’t know about it. I would be even less surprised if they didn’t care.

… And The Traffic
That’s not to say that I do not appreciate the tunnel. It’s a grand convenience, getting to various destinations within the city. Five minutes in the tunnel and you find yourself at the heart of the city. That is if you don’t get hit by the traffic backlog. Like the one I found myself today as I picked WL up from her office. It was the first traffic jam I’ve been in since I started using the tunnel. The jam started as the tunnel neared its end and the roads split towards Jalan Davis and Jalan Tun Razak. Apparently, the queue stretched all the way to General Hospital.

In situations like these, there’s no difference between paying the toll and not. Either way, you’ll find yourself stuck. It was bad enough that I nearly fell asleep at the wheel, waiting my turn. And it wasn’t even raining.

Now I’m really curious as to see how the tunnel actually handles a really heavy storm, when they’ll have to clear the tunnel and flood the three tiers. Considering that rain ALWAYS compounds traffic jams, they’ll probably take a couple of hours just to get all the cars out of the tunnel. Will they even be able to properly channel the water into the tunnel with all the pits and bad drainage they’ve created in between? Who knows.