Johor wants new bridge to replace Causeway

The RM1.3 billion Sultan Iskandar building, which housed the new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex and was opened by the Johor Sultan early this month will be fully operational at midnight today.
However, local residents and politicians in Johor Baharu are still hoping that the government would revive a bridge project, which had been scrapped, to replace the Johor Causeway.
Puteri Wangsa Assemblyman Datuk Abdul Halim Suleiman said most of the Johor people still wanted a new bridge to be built across the Straits of Johor to replace the Johor Causeway which was built in 1923.
The traffic congestion in the city could only be addressed by building a new bridge across the straits, he told Bernama here today.
Abdul Halim, who is also Tebrau Umno deputy chief, believed that by building a new bridge, it would attract more foreign investors and tourists to Iskandar Malaysia.
Two days ago, Johor Baharu Selatan district police chief ACP Zainuddin Yaacob said the Johor Causeway would be closed to all vehicles from 11.45pm today and all traffic would be diverted to the Sultan Iskandar building.
A resident, Mohd Salleh Ali, 39, agreed with Abdul Halim on the traffic congestion in the city, saying that the situation was critical and attributed it to the congestion on the causeway.
“The Johor Baharu residents can no longer tolerate the traffic congestion in the city and are hoping for a new bridge to be built,” he added.
Mohd Salleh, an employee of a private company who resides at Taman Daya here, said he was disappointed when the government decided to scrap the bridge project which had been planned to replace the Johor Causeway.
“Now that the Sultan Iskandar building is operational, we hope the government will revive the bridge project to overcome traffic problem in the city centre,” he added.
Implementation of the Sultan Iskandar building project, which construction began in 2003, also included a bridge to replace the Johor Causeway but the project was scrapped in 2006.
Johor Umno Youth Information chief Khalid Mohamad said the Sultan Iskandar building would not be able to function at its optimum without a new bridge, adding that the bridge project was necessary to boost the state’s tourism industry.

tunku : i thought the johorean don't want the bridge as told by pak lah last time. now if we were to build it we will have to pay double for it.a great way of pak lah's administration.if they did not stop the construction of the scenic bridge, it should have been ready by now.


Cancellation of the Bridge to Singapore
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

The Singapore Government had not objected to the building of the Malaysian bridge to replace the Malaysian half of the causeway. This bridge would be 25 metres above the water to allow for small ships to pass through after removal of the Malaysian half of the causeway. The Second Link is also 25 meters above the water surface. So the vessels can pass through the Tebrau Straits without obstruction by the causeway. This bridge is very essential as the traffic in Johor Baru has increased and there is a permanent traffic jam caused by the North-South flow to and from the causeway and the East-West flow between the Eastern and Western parts of Johor Baru. An elevated road is needed to be built above the East-West traffic for access to and from the causeway. Such a road would result in a part of the Johor end of the causeway becoming useless as the elevated road must land some distance from where the causeway joins the mainland. A full-length bridge to Singapore would enable a gradual rise for lorries to climb and boats to pass underneath after the causeway is removed. Since Singapore refused to jointly construct a straight bridge to replace the causeway, a bridge with 25 meters clearance for boats to pass has got to be long enough for lorries to make a gradual climb. The answer was to lengthen the bridge by a curved design. As for the railway line a swing bridge can be opened or closed for ships or trains to pass through. To cut a long story short work on the curved bridge was stopped so that Dato Seri Abdullah’s Government could offer to sell 1 billion cubic metres of sand, and overflight rights for Singapore military aircraft over Johor Baru if Singapore agreed to a straight bridge. Someone stood to make a lot of money selling 50 million cubic metres of sand per year for 20 years to Singapore for land reclamation. This was a very attractive offer as the reclaimed land can sell for 3,000-5,000 Singapore dollars (about RM6,000-RM10,000) per square metre. The Singapore Government stood to make an enormous amount of money selling this land. They therefore agreed to the straight bridge. That dredging sand from the seabed would cause erosion of the coast, destruction of fish breeding grounds and deprive Johore fishermen of their livelihood were not of concern to the Government of Dato Seri Abdullah. Fortunately the Johor people objected to selling sand and overflights. Abdullah frustrated that his scheme was blocked then punished the Johore people by cancelling the bridge project altogether. No straight bridge, no curve bridge either. The result is that more than RM1 billion have been wasted building the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities, foundation and work on a new railway station, pilings and preliminary works on the road linking the CIQ to the bridge and compensations to the contractors because of the cancellation of the projects. The CIQ building is now a white elephant, unused and yet have to be maintained costing hundreds of thousands of Ringgit a month. Clearly Dato Seri Abdullah has wasted public money. All because he was angry with the Johor people for not enabling one billion cubic metres of sand to be sold to Singapore and the profits thereof.