Liow, thanks for coining a new English word

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YOURSAY ‘Why don't you build a pond in the middle of the runway?’

 

Liow: KLIA2 not flooding, just ponding

Chipmunk: To Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai, water is water. He can never differentiate between river and sea, lake and pond, swimming pool and puddle of water.

 

So what’s the point of arguing with a minister who knows nothing but to apple polish his boss?

 

Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) will also keep denying the real problem because some middleman could have made a huge profit at the expense of safety.

 

Talking about investigation by an independent third party, as long as this third party is under Umno-BN, the results will be bias and as usual, there will be no further action.

 

So Liow, cut the crap, admit your mistake and do your job properly. Otherwise, just quit.

 

Hplooi: This is doublespeak at its best. When you are in power, you can just change the meaning to whatever it suits you. So Malaysia’s airports can "pond" for all you care, forget about international standards.

 

Remember this is an airport not your neighbourhood shopping complex where standards of and for ponding are a lot different.

 

I conjecture (this was originally 'swampy land'), any or all of the following possibilities:

 

1) Soil settlement. By right, airport standard do not allow settlement. In this case, even carpet piling would be problematic. Bakau pile may also not be enough for runway load.

 

But suspended slab over the whole taxiway/runway area would be prohibitively costly. So possibly there was some piling but still soil settlement. Solution: Keep on filling as the soil settle.

 

2) 10-year flood level is above the level of taxiway/runway. By right, they should check water level before construction. Level below flood mark should be filled to above flood level.

 

Given that this is swampy land; filling up to satisfactory level may be time consuming and costly. Again the solution, possibly just fill to (ostensible) flood level.

 

But not enough time was given for settlement (need to complete fast), therefore as soil settle, the water mark level rises above road level. So in my opinion, they should check the design standard and its compliance.

 

CinCin_FLOM: It was announced that KLIA2 would cost RM1.7 billion. Then it was increased to RM2 billion in March 2009, and the final cost, which has shocked many, turned out to be RM4 billion.

 

Odin: Wow! MAHB even has a senior operations general manager. That means there must be at least one junior operations general manager.

 

Despite the existence of all these doubtless overpaid employees, the airport has been ‘kolam-ing’. Or, according to Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing, ‘banjir-ing’.

 

And by the way, Liow, from ponding you will get to lake-ing - and by which time the bloated-cost terminal will be the world's first and only underwater airport.

 

Good for the Navy to park their Scorpenes, no?

           

Apa Nama: That’s why I mentioned before, we should build a harbour nearby. Ships sail and plane fly - a two-in-one solution. First in the world.

 

In the long run, MAHB could make money from these ships and planes. This one of the bolehs of all the bolehs!

 

WDA: Flooding happens when the drainage system does not have enough capacity to remove storm water during a high intensity rain event. Thus, water in the drainage system backs up and floods the upstream areas.

 

Once the rain stops or slows in intensity, the flood water will clear by itself. However, ponding happens due to the drainage inlet located at a higher elevation than the surrounding area.

 

Water flows by gravity from higher to lower elevation. In this case, storm water could not flow to the higher drainage inlet and thus, water ponds.

 

Unlike flooding, ponding water does not go away. That's why the workers have to use buckets to drain them. There has been a mistake in design or in construction, which includes pavement settling.

 

By claiming that it is "merely ponding", the learned minister fails to understand that ponding is a bigger problem than flooding.

 

Apache: Why don't you build a pond in the middle of the runway and let the planes land in the pond. You see Hawaii Five O? The planes can land in the sea.

 

If a car travelling at a very high speed over a puddle of water, the car could skid. What more when the planes are landing on the runway?

 

Dalvik: Liow, thanks for teaching me new word usage. During raining season, we will only have flash pond, not flash flood. Thanks for making Kuala Lumpur flood-free by using this new term.

 

MA: Learn a word a day. Today's word is "ponding". If you are unable to find it your spell-check or any other dictionaries, please look it up in BN's dictionary.


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