Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Kidurong Highway in 1990

The Kidurong highway road in August, 1990.
The road would serve as a main link from Bintulu town centre to Kidurong industrial zone, home to the major industrial projects which help propelled Bintulu into a series of economic booms starting  in 1979. Note the planting of easy or little maintenance and colourful shrubs at the central median.  The main shrubs planted for their colourful bracts are the Bouganvillea and Mussaenda species.

The Kidurong highway road , taken on 4 February, 2014.
Note the planting of Tabebuia rosea trees at the central median which was done in the mid 1990's.  The fully matured huge Angsana trees (Pterocarpus indicus) remains a unique character of Bintulu roadside landscaping which started in a big way in 1980's and continues to present day.
Any visitor who comes into Bintulu town will observe the extent of roadside landscaping done to the town which is not seen in other major towns of Sarawak, except the capital city of Sarawak i.e. Kuching.  The construction of roads infrastructure was critical for a booming town and it was envisioned early in the 1980's that the main roads would be of 4-lane dual carriageways to serve Bintulu's impending future growth and development in population, economic prospects, new townships and industrial zones. It was planned that the dual-carriageways would serve for at least a period of 20 years of continuous growth momentum in the Bintulu economic landscape.   One of the longest highway road linking Bintulu town to the new industrial zone of Kidurong was the Kidurong Highway road which is about 20 kilometers in length. In the 1980's the whole length of the road was planted with roadside trees, mainly the Angsana (Pterocarpus indicus) and Rain tree (Samanea saman) species.  Only in the mid 1990's were the central median of the highway planted with the Tabebuia rosea species.  There are many other species of roadside trees planted in Bintulu and to get some idea of the later species planted, please check them out in my blog here...>>>http://mybintuluclicks.blogspot.com/search/label/Roadside%20Trees