PETRONAS Gas Berhad (PGB) should consider organising town hall sessions with the Putra Heights victims who were affected by the gas pipeline inferno as well as communities living along the gas pipeline stretch in Subang Jaya.
Malaysian Structural Integrity Society (MSIS) president Prof Ir Dr Mahadi Abd Murad said it was important for PGB together with governing authorities to engage with the communities in the aftermath of the pipeline fire; to listen to their concerns and also take the opportunity to share with them PGB’s next steps in safeguarding the integrity and safety of the pipeline.
“As the asset owner, PGB and the authorities can use these town hall sessions to bring back confidence amongst the community. Be transparent and sincere.”
“Residents need to have peace of mind that measures are going to be taken by PGB and approved by the authorities to ensure that the April 1st inferno will not happen again,” he said to SJEcho in an exclusive interview.
Dr Mahadi said installing the latest reliable technology was the way forward for the pipeline owner to regain the trust of communities in follow-up measures.
“As a start, fencing off the boundaries of the gas pipeline route would be the simplest first-step to tackle trespassing.”
“Next comes the need to consider more accurate real-time sensing that measures temperature and strain along optical fibers,” he said.
According to Dr Mahadi, MSIS recommends that PGB considers installing the Brillouin Optical Frequency Domain Analysis (BOFDA) technique.
“BOFDA can be used to detect leaks or other damage in pipelines. It is a sensing technique that measures temperature and strain along optical fibers using Brillouin amplification.”
“PGB can consider installing BOFDA along a 25km stretch in highly populated areas where the pipeline runs through. BOFDA can replace the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technique which only activates when a pipeline is about to rupture or when illegal intrusion happens,” he added.
Dr Mahadi said introducing BOFDA would pre-empt any rupture, giving sufficient time for preventive measures to be taken.
On calls by the communities living along Jalan Usaha to reinstall the height gantry, Dr Mahadi said “I support the call by the community for the gantry to be re-installed along Jalan Usaha in Subang Jaya. But don’t just install the gantry to deny access to heavy vehicles from crossing the gas pipeline along the stretch.”
“Install a shake monitor which is commonly used on structures like tall buildings and bridges. It collects data for analysis and monitoring. If the vibrations go beyond the threshold, it will trigger the alarm,” he added.
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