Ronnie Lim, Business Times 16 Jul 08;
THREE contenders have surfaced to bid for a feasibility study on how caverns can be opened up beneath land-scarce Singapore for a wide range of exciting uses - from power stations and water reclamation to wafer fabs and R&D labs.
Geostock, Tritech Consultants and Amberg & TTI Engineering have made submissions to carry out the underground rock cavern (URC) usage study, said a spokeswoman for JTC Corporation, the coordinating government agency for the project.
Due to the specialised nature of the work, the industrial landlord specified in its tender, called in May, that only companies with URC experience and expertise could bid. 'The tender award is likely to be made next month,' the JTC spokeswoman told BT.
In the tender document, other economic possibilities cited for the URCs include using them for data centres, warehouses, and port and airport logistics centres.
Among the contenders, France's Geostock, jointly with Jurong Consultants, is in a consortium that has won the contract to provide the basic engineering design and manage the construction of the $700 million Phase 1 Jurong Rock Cavern oil storage project beneath Jurong Island.
Tenders for the construction proper are being evaluated, with an award expected around the fourth quarter, the JTC spokeswoman said.
Tritech Consultants is a specialist civil and geotechnical consultancy formed by a group of specialist engineers from Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and China.
The third contender, Amberg & TTI Engineering, is a consultancy that focuses on tunnelling and underground infrastructure. The Far East regional office of Switzerland's Amberg Engineering, it has been involved in various MRT projects here.
Because of the wide- ranging usage possibilities, the consultant that wins the tender will have to work with various government agencies. These include the Energy Market Authority on power stations, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore on airport logistics or the Public Utilities Board on water reclamation.
The consultant will have to study proven URC uses in other countries and determine if they can be applied here.
It will also have to look at the environmental and health aspects and the likely public reaction on issues such as radiation, pollution and damage to existing buildings. The study will also look at the cost of building URCs, including excavation costs, for specific uses.
