History of Temburong Roads

From Borneo Bulletin Archives

 

MAY 4, 1968 – Sappers from 67 Gurkha Independent Field Squadron have played a small but important part in launching the Brunei Government’s Temburong roading project.

 

Last year the squadron undertook to build the first access road for the contractors. It runs southwards for about three miles from the Bangar-Limbang road alongside the Sungai Pandaruan as far as Bukok.

 

And what a job it has turned out to be.

 

Gurkha plant operators have been on a seven-days-a-week working schedule to try to beat the bad weather. More than 50 per cent of working time has been lost through rain, which rapidly turns freshly-worked surfaces into sticky, unworkable mud if they have not been packed by rollers.

 

Just south of Kampong Belais a hillside section about 300 yards long has started to creep towards the river.

 

And on the home straight across low-lying padi land to Bukok an 800-yard stretch has to be built across soft, spongy ground, which undulates under vehicles even when it is dry.

 

The sappers decided the most economical way to cross the obstacle was to lay a raft-like foundation of old perforated steel plates and jungle poles and build the road on top of it.

 

Matched against problems like this, making cuttings through hills and laying 2,000 feet of steel culverting to bridge many small streams along the road’s route were simple.

 

The squadron took on the job for experience as well as to help the Brunei Government and the Temburong people. It has certainly had some useful experience.

 

After they had built their road across this hillside, the sappers discovered it was slowly moving towards the river. The half-submerged tress in the river were formerly growing on the bank



Low-budget road-building like 67 Gurkha Independent Field Squadron’s access road in the Temburong District involves a lot of hard labour like drain digging by hand