Liat Towers gets pop-up flood gate

60cm barrier will rise from pavement only when there is a threat of flood
Victoria Vaughan & Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 13 Aug 10;

THE flood defence method of choice at Liat Towers in Orchard Road will be a pop-up barrier.

The first of its kind here, the $100,000 mechanism will make an appearance only when floods threaten, rising out of the pavement when activated to fit into a stainless steel frame.

In drier times, it will lie flush against the pavement in front of the mall.

The 60cm barrier - low enough for most people to stride over when raised - will stretch from the Orange Julius food and drink outlet near the Paterson Road side of the building to the Hermes boutique on the Angullia Park side.

The technology for it was adapted from a similar system installed in the Marina Bay Sands casino. If a fire breaks out there, a glass panel in the skylight will rise to let the smoke out.

Designer Jwee Quek of design and construction company Parafoil said: 'We've modified the design to act as a flood defence for Liat Towers. It is unique as it operates without the use of electricity.'

He explained that the panels will be held down by an electromagnetic lock. When the lock is switched off, the panels will rise to fit into the steel frame, which will be decorated to blend in with the look of the building and its surroundings.

The Liat Towers system will be activated by a key switch and an alarm. Yellow beacons will flash to warn pedestrians to steer clear of the rising panels.

Mr Chik Hai Lam, a supervisor at Goldvein which owns Liat Towers, expects work to begin by the end of the month and to be completed in three months. He said during the works, the pavement will need to be excavated about 0.33m deep.

Goldvein will bear the cost of the barrier.

Unusually heavy rain triggered floods on June 16 and 25 and on July 17 this year. The shops in Liat Towers, particularly those below street level, lost business from having to be shut for repairs; their loss of stocks ruined by rainwater also ran into millions of dollars.

Since July 17, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has issued 13 heavy-rain warnings, although this is not considered unusual.

The latest went out on Wednesday at about 1pm, when Little India, MacPherson and Seletar were flooded.

In Veerasamy Road in Little India, the water was about ankle-deep, although it subsided in 30 minutes.

National water agency PUB said the areas where flash floods struck that day - Little India, Kampong Ampat and Seletar - were known flooding hot spots because they were low-lying areas.

Drains in these areas will be widened by the end of the year, it added.

The floods of June and last month were unusual, given that wetter weather normally comes in the last three months of the year.

The NEA said that rainfall in the first two weeks of this month, at 176mm, was around the average for the month.