Skip to main content

Conference delegates to visit dual-purpose tunnel

Delegates to the ITS AP Forum will have an opportunity to visit Kuala Lumpur’s Stormwater Management & Road Tunnel (SMART), a unique solution to the Malaysian capital’s long-term traffic and stormwater management problems – the first tunnel of its kind in the world.
March 15, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Delegates to the ITS AP Forum will have an opportunity to visit Kuala Lumpur’s Stormwater Management & Road Tunnel (SMART), a unique solution to the Malaysian capital’s long-term traffic and stormwater management problems – the first tunnel of its kind in the world. The dual-purpose tunnel can divert floodwaters away from the confluence of two major rivers running through the city centre, while its central section doubles up as a twin deck motorway to relieve traffic congestion at the main southern gateway into the city centre.

SMART, which cost some US$515M and opened to traffic in May 2007, comprises 9.5km of tunnel with the central 3km incorporating the double deck motorway. There are three modes of operation:
Mode one operates under normal conditions when low rainfall means that no water needs to be diverted into the tunnel. Moderate storms activate mode two, when floodwater is channelled into a bypass tunnel in the lower section of the motorway tunnel, enabling it to remain open to traffic; during the once or twice yearly heavy Monsoon storms a switch is made to mode three when the tunnel is closed to road traffic and the full tunnel section, with a combined capacity of three million cubic metres, becomes available to divert the dramatically increased flows of water.

Related Content

  • Intertraffic Awards 2022: shortlist announced!
    February 4, 2022
    Winners will be revealed at the opening ceremony of Intertraffic Amsterdam in March
  • Asecap debates the future of tolling
    August 23, 2016
    Colin Sowman reports form Asecap’s Study & Information Days event in Madrid. At Asecap’s (the Association of European Toll Road Operators) recent Study and Information Days event there was no doubt about the subject at the top of the agenda: the European Union Directive 23/2014/EU. This will introduce fundamental changes to the concession model under which Asecap members operate more than 50,000km of tolled highways and, in response, it has compiled a report entitled Proposal for a Sustainable Concession Mo
  • Strabag consortium awarded Eisack River undercrossing contract
    October 24, 2014
    Construction group Strabag, in a consortium with the Italian construction companies Salini Impregilo, Consorzio Cooperative Costruzioni and Collini Lavori, has been awarded a US$379.5 million contract to build the Eisack Undercrossing section of the Brenner Base Tunnel. Work is scheduled to begin this year with a planned construction time of around eight years. The contract section is located at the southern end of the Brenner Base Tunnel near the town of Franzensfeste (Fortezza) in the Province of Bozen
  • Wireless technology aids city-wide traffic management
    October 10, 2012
    An extensive hybrid communications network in the County of Los Angeles is proving the capability and benefits of modern wireless technology for traffic management across wide areas. Wireless communications technology has found a welcoming test bed for use in traffic management systems, in the County of Los Angeles. The county has long running programmes synchronizing and monitoring traffic signals over large areas. In the process, combined with installation of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS), th