Lies, deceptions and stupidity - engineering makes politics look stupid

Post date: Jan 14, 2018 12:47:48 AM

If you read the write-up composed by the administrator of this page, it makes your blood boils and your anger shoots out through the roof. If you continue to read the comments on threads for this post, you probably will be running amok. It is so unfair being deceived and treated poorly by federal government or state government. Is it the case?

1. That short cognitive process only indicate the poor understanding and information you have retained. Secondly, bias will only provoke and promote hatred. It is okay not to be educated but it is definitely wrong to behave as a moron. Let us look at this case as an example. It is easy to type defaming comment(s)/statement(s) and called it your constitutional voice in under 2 minutes. Liberty to speak is pointless if it is without essences.

Disclaimer: I am apolitical. The article i am referring to is written by Warisan @ Suarawarisanborneo.

2. Why is this construction abandoned? Don't they (targets of cyber troopers) have pity for the people around who have been waiting for a school for a long period of time. What kind of animal are you for not having sympathy and empathy for the people? This rural people deserves a school.

3. Before we go into trance and hallucinate, banging our head against invisible walls, let us go through the simplest chronology of events for this project.

2009: A site for construction of a school was identified at the foot of Mount Kinabalu as announced by Deputy Minister Dr Puad Zarkashi.

2012: Construction started

2014: The construction halted following to a written advisory from the Mineral and Geo Science Department that the site is situated on top of a seismic fault line.

May 2017: The long-abandoned SMK Nabalu project will be revived and relocated to a new site at Kampung Giok according to Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.

Sep 2017: Public comment (from 1st to 14th September 2017) for Malaysia National Annex to MS EN 1998-1: 2015, Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance - Part 1: General rules, seismic actions and rules for buildings

Nov 2017: FB post in political page. An offensive move toward GE14

4. For people who is sane, the chronology speaks for itself. Nevertheless, in order to assist those who are unaware, let me explain to you. Kindly put on your thinking cap. Leave that dune cap outside the classroom. To readers who are not well verse with the topography of the said area, i will include some relative measurements.

5. Seismic information for Pekan Nabalu and surrounding. The school is located less than 15km away from the epicenter of 5th June 2015 - 6.0 Richter Scale (RS) earthquake. There are two earthquake epicenters which are situated under 5km from the school. The first one rocks the surrounding at the magnitude of 3.3 RS, 7 minutes after the initial tremor of the massive 6.0 on 5th June. The second one is around 3km away shook 2 days later with 2.4 RS. Pekan Nabalu is one of the places around mount kinabalu which is surrounded by two normal active fault lines (Mensaban and Lobou-Lobou fault lines) and around five other normal inactive fault lines (where the major one is Kedamaian fault) .

7. What Mineral and Geo Science Department did is indeed very timely and the decision to abandon the project is appropriate which actually saves a lot of life. If the building is to be continued, we can imagine the death toll from the completed, commissioned and operational school itself from the 6th June 2015 earthquake. Data of earthquake epicenters prior to Feb 2014 reveals, the only earthquake epicenter around is situated around 50km away which occurred on 7th May 2013 with magnitude of 3.2 RS. The other epicenter is 11km away which triggered tremor of 4.3 RS on 2nd Feb 2005. What triggered this decision is probably the earthquake where the epicenter lies 26km away which triggered 4.7 RS on 1st Feb 2014.

8. It is a lost to the education ministry when this decision was made but somehow, a new location was identified on May 2017 for the construction of a new school for the people around the vicinity. Why is the construction have yet to start? The construction have yet to start since the Malaysia National Annex to MS EN 1998-1: 2015, Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance is yet to be finalized which will form the construction brief and/or term of reference for consultant to design the school structure for tender purposes.

9. Sound engineering is perhaps the sound reason why this project was called of. The structure was likely designed based on conventional design without seismic considerations. The main difference between both designs is on the shear reinforcement linking/wrapping columns and beams. Additional reinforcement bars is needed with appropriate bar bending schedule can only resist such forces and robust enough to sustain predicted serviceable limit. Changes of seismic or ground acceleration will increase reinforcement bars by a few fold. There is a vast difference between PGA count between Kota Kinabalu and Pekan Nabalu. Kota Kinabalu is likely to experience 4%G or 4gal while Pekan Nabalu is exposed to 12-14%G or 120 - 140gal which is three folds or more.

10. There are new technologies appropriate for damping purposes when experiencing earthquake. Why not improvise or integrate these into the school structure. It can be futile and relatively not cost effective to do so if you understand dynamics of structures and other engineering philosophy when discussing about seismic loading. Displacement method or force method?

11. After reading what I wrote, are you still going to be angry or being grateful that a catastrophic event didn't happen with proper intervention by some of the responsible parties? Ask yourself. Reflect on it. Is it right to spit on the face of unsung heroes?