Ronnie Lim, Business Times 13 May 08;
Possibilities include power stations and logistics centres beneath the surface
(SINGAPORE) Singapore is looking at building underground power stations, water reclamation plants, wafer fabs and R&D labs, data centres, warehouses and port and airport logistics centres to free up surface land for other economic uses.
Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation has called a tender for a wide-ranging 'underground rock cavern (URC) usage feasibility study' to see how best caverns beneath the island can be used.
The consultant awarded the study will have to work with various government agencies on possible uses for the caverns.
For instance, it will have to work with the Energy Market Authority on power stations, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore on airport logistics, or the Public Utilities Board on water reclamation plants.
The study will cover such 'space, technical and functional requirements, operation and maintenance requirements and identification of issues of concern', the tender document says.
The tender, called on Friday last week, closes on June 6. Due to the specialised nature of the project, only tenderers with proven URC expertise and experience are eligible.
The winning consultant will have to identify and study proven URC usage in other countries and determine the technical and operational feasibility of such usage here.
The consultant will also have to look at the environment, health and the likely public reaction on such matters as radiation and pollution, harmful airborne particles and damage to existing buildings or infrastructure, among other things.
A JTC spokeswoman said yesterday JTC will be the facilitator for the multi-agency study. 'The study will look at possible uses for URCs as well as costs,' she said. 'The latter include costs for excavation and facility construction for each specific use.'
JTC declined to say which areas of Singapore have potential for URCs. 'The latest feasibility study is looking just at usage, and not sites,' the spokeswoman noted.
Singapore has so far used underground caverns for munitions storage for the defence forces. It blasted caverns out of granite beneath the disused Mandai Quarry.
And it is currently constructing Phase 1 of the $700 million Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) project beneath Jurong Island to store 1.485 million cu m of crude oil and oil products like naphtha, condensate and gas oil.
JRC will be used by petrochemical companies such as Jurong Aromatics Corporation, which is building a US$2 billion aromatics complex and is the first committed customer.
The first of five caverns being built under Phase 1 will start operating at end-2010. Phase 2 of the project will add another 1.3 million cu m of storage.
In March, when Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean commissioned the underground munitions facility at Mandai, he said it would free up 300 ha of land - half the size of Pasir Ris Town - and need 20 per cent less manpower to operate than a surface facility.
Likewise, JRC will free up 60 ha of surface space - bigger than Bishan Park - to accommodate the storage needs of the oil industry here.
Land on Jurong Island is being snapped up by new petrochemical investors. BT understands that no more land is available from JTC for above-ground oil storage terminals, after Hin Leong's Universal Terminal and Emirates National Oil Company's Horizon Terminal.
Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation has called a tender for a wide-ranging 'underground rock cavern usage feasibility study' to see how best caverns beneath the island can be used.
An underground reservoir?
Govt tender to study feasibility of more facilities in rock caverns
Ansley Ng, Today Online 14 May 08;
LAND-SCARCE Singapore is already storing some of its military munitions in this way. And work is underway on similar storage facilities for crude oil and oil products.
Now, the Government wants to look at building power stations, warehouses, incineration plants, airport logistics centres and reservoirs — all below ground.
Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) last Friday called a tender for a "underground rock cavern usage feasibility study" to see how subterranean grottos could be used to maximise land use. Among other things, the winning consultant will have to study the costs and the use of underground caverns in other countries. It will also advise JTC on the possible environmental and health issues, such as pollution, radiation and damage to existing buildings and infrastructure.
Last July, Today broke the story of how government agencies including the JTC were exploring the feasibility of creating caverns for living.
Professor Zhao Jian, who led early feasibility studies on cavern development in Singapore, had said then that the potential for space underground was "almost limitless" and was "particularly useful for any facilities that are not desirable at surface level, for example, sewage treatment plants".
The study now up for tender will look merely at feasibility and not sites, a JTC spokeswoman told the Business Times.
However, potential sites could be areas with deposits of igneous rock, such as granite, in the central, northern and northeastern areas of the island.
A 1995 paper by Nanyang Technological University researchers including Prof Zhao, in the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology, concluded that the Bukit Timah granite — which forms one-third of the surface area of Singapore — had good potential for underground cavern construction.
The tender closes June 6, and the consultant is expected to work with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Energy Market Authority, among others.
other cavern projects:
• In March, the Ministry of Defence opened caverns under the disused Mandai Quarry to store ammunition such as bullets, bombs and missiles. The warehouse caverns – each about the size of six basketball courts – were blasted out of solid granite underneath the quarry, freeing up surface land the size of Pasir Ris town.
• The JTC is constructing the $2-billion Jurong Rock Cavern beneath Jurong Island, for use by petrochemical companies. The first caverns under Phase 1 should begin operations in 2010.
• A plan in the late 1990s to construct a Science City, a mixed-use commercial project, under Science Park 2 was derailed by cost factors.
