Published: Tuesday December 1, 2009 MYT 2:35:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday December 1, 2009 MYT 6:35:21 PM
Sabah landslide strands motorists, tourists miss flights
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
KOTA KINABALU: A massive landslip has cut Sabah’s main east-west road link and has left thousands of motorists stranded.
About 1am Tuesday, heavy rains triggered the slide of tonnes of boulders and earth onto a stretch at Km 65 Kota Kinabalu-Ranau road at the foothills of Mt Kianabalu that links the west coast of Sabah with the east coast.
''It is a big one, at least 80m of the road is covered by boulders and earth,” Sabah Public Works Department director John Anthony said when contacted.
He said that their private contractors managed to clear a single lane at about 9am but were forced close that two hours later because of continuing rain.
''It is just too dangerous to allow vehicles to pass through at this moment as the earth movement is still active,” he added.
However, PWD engineers and their contractors are trying to prepare an alternative route for motorist to take, pending the clearing of the landslips.
''There is an abandoned gravel road in the area and we are now trying to rehabilitate it,” he said, adding that in view of current bad weather conditions, they needed to get the alternative route ready as soon as possible.
''We hope that by late evening, the stranded motorists will be able to take the alternative route as we do not want to risk allowing them to move through the single lane as it is still too risky,” he added.
Thousands of motorists, including tour buses ferrying tourists to and from Mount Kinabalu in Kundasang, are stranded with no option to continue their journey either to Ranau or to the city here.
Many-stranded tourists, who were returning after visiting Mount Kinabalu, missed their flights out of Kota Kinabalu, according a tour guide when contacted by phone.
''We just have to wait it out, hopefully things will start moving soon, he said adding that they had been stuck since 11am Tuesday.
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