Habibah said loose, sandy soil was used at the construction site of the Bukit Kukus paired road project. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, Oct 23 — The wrong type of soil was used to fill the land at the construction site of the Bukit Kukus paired road project, a landslide, disaster management and soil erosion expert said today.

Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Habibah Lateh, who visited the site today, expressed her shock in finding loose, sandy soil being used at the site.

“Loose sandy soil was used to fill the land after they cut the hill, which has a granite bedrock, and it is highly unsuitable,” she told reporters.

She said the contractor should have used a more appropriate soil to fill the land so that it is stronger and firmer.

She said there should have been strict monitoring to ensure the project contractor complied with standard operating procedures (SOP) when cutting and filling the land during construction.

She stressed that she was not taking any sides or pointing fingers.

“I came here to visit as an academic together with the national disaster management agency and I am saying this based on what I noticed when we visited the site,” she said.

She said the containers were placed on slopes where water was flowing down, which could have led to the landslide.

“Engineers must visit the site and look at how the cutting and filling were done and to check whether it was according to SOP,” she said.

She added that the Penang Structure Plan clearly states that projects can’t be built in areas above 70 metres and on slopes above 25 degrees.

“So, there must be strict monitoring to ensure all SOPs are adhered to for this project but when they don’t monitor, this is what happens,” she said.

Habibah said the state authorities need to conduct detailed studies on hill slope projects.

“Even if they feel the land is suitable for this project, they will still need to conduct a detailed study for such project,” she said.

Last Friday, a landslide occurred at the construction site, bringing down 12 containers stacked on the slopes and burying at least 10 foreign workers in the rubble.

So far, the bodies of nine workers have been recovered and search operations are still underway to recover the last victim believed buried underneath.