On April 9, the Beijia Tunnel of the Malaysia East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), designed by the CCCC Highway Consultants-Mott MacDonald joint venture, officially broke through in both directions, becoming the first tunnel on the entire line to achieve breakthrough and marking an important milestone in the project's construction. The 640-kilometer ECRL is designed by the joint venture for 422 kilometers of civil works; once completed, it will drive economic development in the East Coast region and greatly improve connectivity along the route.
The Beijia Tunnel is located in Beijia County, Terengganu State, with a total length of 1,107 meters, a height of 11.8 meters and a width of 12.9 meters. It took approximately 620,000 man-hours and adopted the drill-and-blast method, with a track spacing of 4.2 meters. It is a single-tube, double-track ballasted composite-lined tunnel, with end-wall portals at both the entrance and exit. Despite the impact of multiple factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and floods during construction, our joint venture actively carried out construction coordination, made full use of local resources, and organized and coordinated with multiple parties. While maintaining routine pandemic prevention and control, we helped achieve the early breakthrough of the project's first tunnel.
As of March this year, construction of the ECRL project has been completed 21.39%, with encouraging progress. It is expected that by the end of this year, more than 300 work sites, including tunnels, bridges, subgrades and culverts, will enter construction, marking the project's entry into a peak construction period. The CCCC Highway Consultants-Mott MacDonald joint venture will continue to play a leading role in design and do a good job in follow-up construction coordination and design services.