Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) has completed the excavation of 38 of the projects 41 tunnels following two breakthroughs in Selangor last week.
The breakthrough of the 3.5km Serendah 1 Tunnel on April 7 – two months ahead of schedule – completed excavation of the 38th tunnel.
The day before, breakthrough was achieved on the 189m-long Rawang-Bestari Jaya Tunnel.
The final blast of the Serendah 1 Tunnel punched through the last barrier 2,046m from the tunnel’s exit portal. It was the culmination of approximately 894,920 man hours of work excavating through primarily weathered granite.
Prior to the breakthrough the permanent lining had been completed on 2.5km of the tunnel. The tunnel has an average height of 12m and width of 13m, providing space for two standard gauge railway tracks.
Excavation works for the Serendah 1 Tunnel began in November 2022 and were originally scheduled to break through on May 31 this year. All related civil works for the tunnel are expected to be completed by January 2026.
The construction of the Serendah 1 Tunnel will enable the ECRL railway track to comply with its maximum gradient of 0.9 per cent, as well as to minimise impact to water catchment areas, such as Batu Dam, and reduce open forest cutting at the Sungai Tua Recreational Forest.
The three remaining tunnels under excavation are the twin bores of the 16.39km Genting Tunnel and the 9.85km Serendah 2 Tunnel.
The two TBMs building the twin-bore Genting Tunnel are expected to break through in the middle of this year. The Serendah 2 Tunnel, which is being excavated by drill and blast, is targeted to break through in the third quarter.
Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Dato’ Sri Darwis Abdul Razak said the smooth excavation works at Serendah 1 Tunnel and Rawang-Bestari Jaya Tunnel were the result of the outstanding effort and commitment of the ECRL Project team at Section 8 and Section 9 respectively, as well as adoption of advanced tunnelling techniques and safe construction practices.
“We achieved a major milestone with the smooth excavation of the 3.5km-long Serendah 1 Tunnel, which is central to the ECRL alignment linking Gombak to Port Klang in Selangor. Some 512,582m3 of soil and rock were safely removed with minimal ground movement and minor inconvenience to road users throughout the excavation period using the drill-and-blast method,” he said.
He added that the Rawang-Bestari Jaya Tunnel was excavated by the benching method to enable a bypass for the ECRL alignment instead of having to cut through a main road along Jalan Rawang- Bestari Jaya.
Dato’ Sri Darwis also said extensive progress had been achieved in rail tunnel design and construction, adding that the project’s alignment required cutting through hilly terrain and dense forests to connect the East Coast with the Klang Valley.
Construction for Phase 1 of the ECRL Project, spanning from Kota Bharu, Kelantan to the Gombak Integrated Terminal, Selangor is scheduled for completion by December 2026, with operations set for January 2027 onwards. Construction for Phase 2, linking Gombak with Port Klang, is expected to be completed by December 2027 and fully operational by January 2028.
MRL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Minister of Finance, is the project owner of the ECRL while China Communications Construction Company Ltd is the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contractor. The 665km ECRL will traverse the East Coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang before linking with Selangor on the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
The ECRL electric multiple unit train will travel at a maximum speed of 160km/h. It new line will provide journey times between Kota Bharu and the Gombak Integrated Terminal of four hours, compared to seven hours by road or more than 12 hours during festive season.
