SYNOPSIS

In this two half-day webinar, invited geotechnical engineers and contractors would share their experience in the 1st Klang Valley MRT project which now known as Kajang MRT Line.  The 51km line begins from Sungai Buloh MRT station through the KL city center and ended in Kajang MRT Station with total of 31 stations. Total 9.5km route is in underground with 6 stations.

As this is the first MRT line in Malaysia, many geotechnical challenges were encountered during design and construction stages particularly due to its fast track implementation nature. Experiences gained in this project have been used as a benchmark and basis for the subsequent 2nd MRT line or known as Putrajaya Line that currently under construction. The alignment passing through different geological formations, namely KL Limestone, Kenny Hill Formation and Granite Formation that pose different geotechnical risks to the viaduct foundation, underground station excavation and tunneling works.

In this webinar, participants particularly those involve in metro lines would benefit from the sharing of the speakers on their geotechnical experience in both design and construction for elevated and underground packages.  


BIODATA OF SPEAKER AND MODERATOR

Ir. Mak Wai Kin will be the moderator for this Webinar and currently he is the Managing Director in Solstruct Engineers Sdn. Bhd. He was involved in geotechnical design of the underground package between Semantan Portal to Intervention Shaft in Bukit Bintang from inception till completion of construction stage.

Ir. Dr. Tan Yean Chin obtained his B. Eng. (Civil) degree with First Class Honours from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 1992. In 1994, he was awarded the Chin Fung Kee prize and M. Eng. (Geotechnical Engineering) from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok. He later obtained his Engineering Doctorate from UTM in 2017. Ir. Dr. Tan is a Professional Engineer with Practicing Certificate and an Accredited Checker (Geotechnical) registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). He is a registered ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer (ACPE) as well as an APEC Engineer and International Professional Engineer (IPEA) in Malaysia and Australia.  He is also a registered Foreign Professional Engineer in Myanmar and Cambodia. Ir. Dr. Tan holds the position of Secretary General (2008-2020) of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP), an international independent umbrella organisation for the engineering institutions in the Asia and the Pacific region.  He was the President of The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) in year 2016-2018. He is also of the Founder and Senior Director of G&P Professionals group of multi disciplines engineering consulting firms. He has lead his team in the design of mega projects such as Electrified Double Track Railway project from around Taiping to Alor Setar, Klang Valley MRT Kajang Line and Putrajaya Line.  Ir. Dr Tan has published more than 100 technical papers in local and overseas conferences and seminars.  

Ir. Sharmeelee S graduated with B. Eng (Civil) from Karnataka Regional Engineering College, India in 1998. She obtained her Master degree in Geotechnical Engineering from NUS Singapore in 2003 after a brief period as a lecturer in Inti College, Nilai. She joined GCU Consultants Sdn Bhd in 2004 as a geotechnical engineer and was promoted to be a Technical Director since 2016.  During this period of 15 years in GCU, she has been involved in large civil engineering projects providing geotechnical consultancy services including MRT1, MRT2 Underground, Electrified Double Track projects, Pos Betau Hill road, DASH, Jimah Power Plant, BBCC, Belfield Tunnel, etc.

Mr. Vijayakumar is currently the Executive Director (Business Development & Operations) of Bauer Malaysia.  He graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering from University Malaya in 1991. In his initial working years, he worked in the Engineering Service Department of a big public listed Plantation Group responsible for the design and supervision of Palm Oil Mill and Rubber Factory. In 1994, he joined Ho Hup Construction Berhad for LRT 1 based in Masjid Jamek Underground station. He subsequently jointed Bauer in 1996 serving in various positions, and recently appointed as a member of Bauer Malaysia Board of Director. In his 24 years of working experience with Bauer, he has undertaken various foundation projects involving bored piling, secant pile wall, diaphragm wall, ground improvement and ground anchors. He was involved in the LRT 1 works, Electrified Double Tracking works and during MRT Line 1 works, he took charge of the entire Bauer’s works in the five Underground stations. He is also the Project Director for Bauer in the ongoing MRT Line 2.

Ir. Gan Shwu Jiuan has accumulated more than 19 years engineering experience in geotechnical analyses and design which mainly deal with deep excavations, tunnels, foundations and geotechnical interpretation and instrumentation works since obtaining her B.Civil Eng degree from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2001. Then she pursued her MSc (Civil-Geotechnical) in National University of Singapore graduated in 2008. She is currently Technical Director in AECOM Singapore Pte Ltd and Registered Professional Engineer (Civil, Geo) in Singapore. She is proficient in performing numerical analyses using Plaxis 2-D, Slope/W and Seep/W for geotechnical design. Her project experience includes the rail transit, tunnel and building projects in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India and Vietnam. She was responsible for the geotechnical design of Deep Tunnel Sewer System Phase 2, KVMRT Underground Section 1 in Malaysia, MRT Downtown Line Phase 1, tunnel design for Bangalore and Kolkata East-West metro rail projects in India, and the MTR West Island Line in Hong Kong. She was also involved in the geotechnical design for, integrated resorts development at Sentosa, D’ Leedon condominium in Singapore and Saigon Centre in Vietnam.

Dr. Boon Chia Weng graduated obtained his D.Phil. at Oxford University in 2013, and B. Eng. at Nanyang Technological University in 2009.  He was awarded the Rocha Medal in 2016 by the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM). He was a past recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal, Professional Engineers Board Gold Medal (Singapore) and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarship (Malaysia).  He is working with MMC-Gamuda KVMRT (T) Sdn Bhd, at which he contributes to the construction of underground tunnels and stations in the 1st and 2nd Line of the underground mass rapid transit project in Kuala Lumpur. He was inducted as a Future Leader Member of the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) in 2017 in San  Francisco.  He was recently awarded the Tan Sri Zainal Prize from the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) in 2019, and was elected as the Malaysian Representative for the International Tunnelling Association Young Member Group (ITAym).  He is a member of TC103 Numerical Methods in Geomechanics of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).

Ir. Frankie Cheah Peng Leong is an Associate Director of AECOM. He obtained Msc in geotechnical engineering from NTU Singapore. He is a qualified civil and geotechnical engineer with more than 15 years of experience. His experience covers deep foundation, underground earth retaining structures, for both top down and bottom up construction within Asia region. Beside core experiences in consultancy for various project around Asia region, Frankie able to gain vast skill to produce a competent geotechnical finite element design that incorporate safety and economic aspect. He also promote to enhance his skill and knowledge in technical write-up on his completed projects at PLAXIS USER Day Meeting and in Malaysia. He is the key geotechnical engineer for AECOM for both the MRT Putrajaya Line (Line2) and MRT Kajang Line (Line1). More recent projects that he is also involved as part of the geotechnical technical support team are Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link together with few other designs and built contract for Singapore Cross Island Line package with AECOM Singapore. Prior to technical competency, he also contributes in the engineering society by holding the position of secretary/treasurer for Tunnelling & Underground Space Technical Division, IEM Section 2020/2022.