Pan-Borneo Highway


Pan Borneo Highway, also known as Trans-Borneo Highway or Trans-Kalimantan Highway, is a road network on Borneo Island connecting two Malaysian states, Sabah and Sarawak, with Brunei and Kalimantan region in Indonesia. The highway is numbered AH150 in the Asian Highway Network and as Federal Route 1 in Sarawak. In Sabah, the route numbers given are 1, 13 and 22. The highway is a joint project between both governments which started as soon as the formation of Malaysia in 1963 which comprised Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. The lack of a road network system in Sarawak was the main factor of the construction.
The length of the entire highway is expected to be about for the Malaysian section, for the Bruneian section and for the Indonesian section. The Indonesian sections of the Pan Borneo Highway is known as the Trans-Kalimantan Highway. The western route connects the city of Pontianak to Tebedu.

Route background

The Pan-Borneo Highway, Asian Highway Route AH150 is supposed to be a circular highway that runs along the coastlines of Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan. However, a missing link does exist from Serudong, Sabah to Simanggaris, North Kalimantan, which is supposed to connect Sabah with North Kalimantan.
The Malaysian section of the Pan-Borneo Highway is signposted as Federal Route 1 in Sarawak and Federal Routes 1, 22 and 13 in Sabah. The 1,077-km highway in Sarawak is divided to 92 sections altogether, and the sections are sometimes being signposted along with the route number with the syntax of xx-yy, where xx is the route number and yy is the section code. In Brunei, the highway is signposted simply as the AH150.
In Kalimantan, the Trans-Kalimantan Highway consists of three main highways. The northern route, also dubbed as Trans Border Highway ', runs along the Malaysia-Indonesia border from Tamajuk to Sei Ular. The central route runs from Pontianak to Samarinda through the interior of Kalimantan. The southern route, which runs along the coastline of Kalimantan from Sambas to Simanggaris, is gazetted as the Indonesian section of the Asian Highway Route AH150. None of the three highways bear any route number yet.
The Malaysian and Indonesian sections are linked together by a highway known as the Trans-Malindo Highway ', which is gazetted as Federal Route 21 in Malaysia.

History

The Pan-Borneo Highway was built due to the lack of the intercity highway network in the island of Borneo. In East Malaysia, the intercity highway plan only existed after the Second World War ended in 1945, after the states of North Borneo and Sarawak were ceded to Britain to become British Crown Colonies. By 1949, the Governor of North Borneo reported that there were of roads paved with asphalt, of other metalled roads, of dirt roads and of bridle paths.
The construction of the intercity highway network in Sabah and Sarawak intensified at a faster pace after both states participated in the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. In Sabah, the first federally-funded intercity highway project ever constructed was the Federal Route 22 from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan, as a joint project between the Malaysian federal government with the government of Australia. Also dubbed as the "Malaysia-Australia Road Project", the construction of the FT22 highway began in 1968 and was completed in 1982 with Telupid town became the main centre of the project headquarters.
In the meantime, the Kota Kinabalu–Papar section of the Federal Route 1 was completed in 1964, followed by the Kota Kinabalu–Kudat section which was completed in the 1970s. The entire Sabah Federal Route 1 was completed in 1981 after the construction of the final section from Papar to Sindumin was completed that year. Two years later in 1983, the construction of the Tawau–Semporna Highway was completed. The construction of the remaining section of the FT13 highway was completed in early 1990s after the construction of Sungai Kinabatangan and Sungai Segama bridges were completed.
Meanwhile, in Sarawak, the construction of the first intercity trunk highway in Sarawak was commenced in 1965, dubbed as the "First Trunk Road". Most of the highway network in Sarawak was constructed within the decades of 1960s to 1980s. The Lawas–Merapok–Sindumin section was completed in 1981 while the final missing link from Sibu to Bintulu was completed in 1985. However, the highway had not been fully paved with asphalt yet at that time; it was only by the end of Sixth Malaysia Plan in 1995 that the FT1 highway in Sarawak was fully paved.
Before 1996, all routes in the Pan-Borneo Highway network in Malaysia were state highways. After the Federal Roads Act 1959 was made effective in Sabah and Sarawak in 1984, those highways were re-gazetted as federal highways in 1996 with the route number of FT1, FT13 and FT22. Those highways were later gazetted as a part of Asian Highway Network Route AH150.
Meanwhile, the road transportation network in Kalimantan region did not exist until 1970s when logging roads were built by logging companies. Later, about 75% of the logging roads were converted to national roads. The Trans-Kalimantan Highway was completed in 2016 with the opening of the Tayan Bridge.
Although some sections had been upgraded to divided highways, the Pan-Borneo Highway was notorious for its poor condition in many sections., of the Indonesian Trans-Kalimantan Highway was built below the Asian Highway Network Class III standards. Meanwhile, the overall condition in many sections of the Malaysian section of the Highway was poor with many potholes, because most sections of the highway were built with standards as low as JKR R3. A study to upgrade the entire highway to a super two highway under JKR R5 standard was done, which was expected to cost RM16 billion. Ultimately, the Malaysian federal government had opted to upgrade the Pan-Borneo Highway to a divided highway. The upgrade works of the Pan-Borneo Highway to a divided highway is expected to be completed by 2023 for the Sarawakian section and by 2025 for the Sabahan section, with the overall cost of RM27 billion.

Intersections along the Pan Borneo Highway

UEM, MMC and Warisan Tarang Construction Sdn Bhd is teaming up, forms UEM-MMC-Warisan Tarang JV Sdn Bhd via a joint venture and received their role as project delivery partner via Borneo Highway PDP Sdn Bhd in 2016. Warisan Tarang owns BHP. It starts at Sindumin and ends at Serudong. In 2019, UEM announces that UEM-MMC-Warisan Tarang JV Sdn Bhd agrees the Pakatan Harapan government's decision to terminate their role as PDP. Since then, the joint venture company would gave up their operation dan gives the project to other contractors to continue.

Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak

In 2015, prime minister Najib Razak launches the Pan Borneo Highway project in Telok Melano. The main purpose is to upgrading the two-way lane to long-awaiting four lane two-way lane. Years ago, long distance travelling is only through the two way and it was dissatisfied Sarawakians who went to the central and northern of the state. 10 contractors are involved in this project, beginning with Samlig Resources Sdn Bhd for works package which connects Telok Melano and Sungai Moyan via Bau, Lundu and Sematan and ended with Konsortium KPE Sdn Bhd for Sg. Tangap to Pujut Link Road. The length of this project is over 10,000 km and the cost is almost RM1 billion. Contractors involved are well-known construction companies, Samling Group of Companies, Zecon Berhad, Kimlun Sdn Bhd, Naim Holdings Berhad, Gamuda Berhad Endaya Construction Sdn Bhd, TRC Synergy Berhad, Pembinaan Kuantiti Sdn Bhd, Cahya Mata Sarawak, Bina Puri Sdn Bhd, Hock Seng Lee Berhad, Dhaya Maju Infrastructure Sdn Bhd, Musyati Sdn Bhd, Mudajaya Group Berhad, KKB Engineering Berhad, WCT Holdings Berhad, Shin Yang Group of Companies, KACC Construction Sdn Bhd and Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd. KACC and PESB agreed a consortium agreement and set up Konsortium KPE Sdn Bhd. It was conducted by Lebuhraya Borneo Utara Sdn Bhd as a turnkey contractor. On January 2019, the first package, Telok Melano to Sematan was complete and the main contractor, Samling Resources Sdn Bhd gives the completed road to the government to eases the Telok Melano residents to start their new trips to Sematan, Lundu, Bau, Kuching and vice versa via KM0.00, Telok Melano and ends at Sematan Rounabout, which is still in construction in WPC02 which connects Sematan and Sg. Moyan. The roundabout was included in this WPC. It was launched by Works Minister, Baru Bian and Chief Minister, Abang Johari Tun Openg.
The contractors are divided into different WPCs: