Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Malaysia’s International Financial Centre – 70 Acres

The Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) is a development with an approximate land area of 70-acres, poised to be Malaysia’s new international business and financial district. The Tun Razak Exchange is located within the eastern region of Kuala Lumpur’s central business district, bounded between Bukit Bintang, Pudu, Cochrane, Kampung Pandan and Ampang Hilir. The Royal Selangor Golf Club is situated just across Jalan Tun Razak, as well as RHB Bank’s headquarters and Zouk KL.

Technical Description

EDP Consulting Group Sdn. Bhd. was appointed as the Civil Infrastructure, Highway, Bridge, Geotechnical, Sustainable and Renewable Energy, Mechanical and Electrical consultant to carry out;

• Master infrastructure planning and design of civil infrastructure works including traffic improvement works for Jalan Tun Razak ingress and egress jack in roof pipe tunnels across Jalan Tun Razak
• Redesign of SMART tunnel to enable the cutting of wall openings for the ingress and egress connecting to TRX.
• Retaining system,
• Site formation,
• Assessing ground water drawdown impact on surrounding buildings through a site pumping study and grouting of cavities including primary and secondary grouting,
• Electrical and mechanical utilities,
• Foundation design of the road tunnels,
• North South Bridge linking the TRX north and south plots and connecting major highways, expressways, urban roads to TRX.

Besides that, EDP was also involved in providing site supervision during the construction stage and has provided professional engineering solutions to deliver this challenging development.

For site formation, controlled rock blasting was adopted as the methodology for rock excavation. Due to the close proximity of site to existing buildings and karstic feature of Kuala Lumpur Limestone Formation, with high ground water level, grouting was provided to reduce ground water ingress and drawdown which may occur during the excavation works for the basement and tunnel construction. Fissure grouting and compaction grouting was also carried out prior to the excavation works. Excavation depths range from 7m and 12m below existing ground. Permanent retaining system such as secant pile wall supported with temporary ground anchor was adopted along the site perimeter where open cut construction was not a viable option due to site constraint. Comprehensive instrumentation monitoring was carried out during construction to monitor any ground movement due to the ongoing excavation works.

As for the foundation system for the road tunnel, a combination of raft, micro pile and bored pile foundation was adopted depending on the Limestone conditions on site. Limestone conditions was investigated by the mean of rock probings during construction. Areas where cavities are encountered, compaction grouting was carried out prior to excavations and bored pile construction.

Civil Infrastructure planning and design such as drainage, water supply and sewerage system, road planning and alignments, roof jack in pipe tunnels, earthworks etcetera were carried out in accordance with relevant authorities’ design specification and requirements for part of TRX. For mechanical and electrical facilities and utilities, we have collaborated with one of our international partners to carry out the masterplanning and preliminary design of district cooling and distribution piping, primary electricity requirements sub-station and power distribution, waste water treatment, cabling utility tunnel, piping works to cater for the overall TRX development.

Tun Razak Exchange aims to achieve as one of the world’s leading sustainable developments. EDP’s sustainable, mechanical and electrical team were involved in providing consulting and designing services for solar panels, which is to be fitted on roofs of covered walkways and pavements within the development as part of the development’s sustainability plan to harness and reuse renewable solar energy, aligning itself along with United Nation Sustainable Development Goals 7,9,11,12 and 13.

Other key sustainability driver which EDP was involved, was to carry out the role as the Independent Checking Engineer (ICE) for the supply of non-potable water from recycled water produced on site via an advanced waste water treatment plant.

Project Highlights, Achievement and Recognition:

• Design of one of the major basement excavations of approximately 50-acres in Kuala Lumpur Karstic Limestone.
• TRX is the first to achieve township level Green Building Index (“GBI”) Platinum Certification in Malaysia by the Malaysia Green Building Index Accreditation Panel (“GBI Certification”) and achieving LEED Gold certification for “Neighbourhood Development Plan”.
• TRX is the first fully integrated commercial reclaim water project in South East Asia.