GEORGE TOWN, Aug 7 — A 1.6km segment of the Bukit Kukus paired road linking Paya Terubong to Lebuh Bukit Jambul will be open to the public by August next year, with the remainder due in several more years.

Public Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the segment, undertaken by Penang Island City Council (MBPP), was 78 per cent completed and due to be finished next July.

"We expect it to open to traffic by August next year,” he said during a site visit on the Lebuh Bukit Jambul segment with state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo and MBPP Mayor Datuk Yew Tung Seang today.

The segment will include a new elevated road to Jalan Tun Sardon, a roundabout and a new paired road to Lebuh Bukit Jambul.

Zairil said there will be a small link road from Jalan Paya Terubong to the elevated road pending the completion of the other segments of the 5km highway.

The project was delayed due to a fatal landslide last October when nine workers were killed and a stop-work order was issued against the project until February this year.

The whole highway is jointly undertaken by MBPP (2.8km), Geo Valley Sdn Bhd (800m) and PLB Land Sdn Bhd (1.4km).

MBPP has completed the first and second small segments to upgrade existing roads of 600m each linking to the main highway.

Zairil said the Geo Valley and PLB Land segments were delayed as the developers had funding issues.

"So, for the Geo Valley segment, Aspen Group has taken over the project and will continue on with the project at the end of this year,” he said.

The 800m segment, costing about RM120million, will take about two years to complete and is expected to be open to traffic by early 2022.

As for the PLB segment, covering 1.4km at a RM150million cost, Zairil said works is still ongoing but it was done progressively.

"We will be getting updates on the progress from PLB about it,” he said.

Local government, housing and town and country planning committee chairman Jagdeep said the costs for MBPP’s portion totalled RM370.1 million.

"The construction cost was RM275.6 million while the land acquisition cost was RM83.5 million and consultant services costs RM11 million,” he said.

The project commenced in January 2016 and as at 2018, he said MBPP had spent RM275.8 million for the construction and land acquisition costs.

"This year, MBPP allocated RM44.2 million and next year, another RM37.355 million for the project,” he said.

He said the project took up 40 per cent of the city council’s allocations for projects each year since 2016.

According to Yew, this is the biggest project the city council has undertaken since 2016.

The total construction costs for the whole 5km stretch comes up to about RM545 million.

Currently, ongoing works included elevated structure works for the Tun Sardon Link and also for the main paired road.

Jagdeep said geotechnical works such as controlled rock blasting, slope cutting and stabilisation of the slopes using soil nailing and drainage system works are also now underway.