Goh Chin Lian Straits Times 20 Jan 11;
SINGAPORE'S longest road viaduct will be built as part of the 21km North-South Expressway (NSE) which planners expect will slash travelling time from Woodlands to the city by 30 per cent during peak hours.
Work on the expressway - Singapore's 11th and technically the most challenging - is due to start in two years. It should end by 2020 when the already heavily used Central Expressway (CTE), to which it runs parallel, and other major roads are expected to face a capacity crunch.
The bill for the new expressway: $7 billion to $8 billion.
Details of the 15.9km northern section of the NSE, from Admiralty Road West to Toa Payoh Rise, were announced yesterday.
It will comprise an 8.8km viaduct and road tunnels linking estates like Woodlands, Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Toa Payoh to the city. It will have largely three lanes each way.
The Government will acquire 38 lots of land entirely and 33 lots partially. They include about 25 terrace houses at Marymount Terrace, and the part of Marymount Convent that houses the living quarters of nuns and a nursing home.
Also affected are industrial land owned by JTC Corporation as well as parts of fences, boundary walls and grass verges of condominiums such as Nuovo, Castle Green, Seletaris and Bullion Park.
The acquired land, gazetted yesterday, is about 5.6ha or the size of eight football fields. This area is larger than the 4.8ha of land acquired for the 12km Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, which is three-quarters underground, and 3.4ha for the underground MRT Circle Line.
The route of the 5.1km southern section is still being firmed up and will be announced later, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said. It is expected to connect to the East Coast Parkway.
Plans for the North-South Expressway were first unveiled as part of a land transport masterplan two years ago that went beyond building more roads in land-scarce Singapore to improving public transport and moving from taxing vehicle ownership to charging for road usage.
The LTA said it has planned extensively and carefully for the new highway to minimise the impact on the public.
It is banking on the NSE to relieve congestion on the CTE, the only expressway for the north-south corridor that sees heavy traffic from the northern and central parts at peak hours.
While the CTE is on target to be widened to four lanes by the end of this year, the LTA said the roads cannot cope with future growth in traffic as more homes are built in Yishun, Sembawang and Woodlands, and Marina Bay in the city centre becomes developed.
The NSE, which will connect to Seletar Expressway, could also improve traffic flow on major roads like Thomson and Marymount. The LTA estimates it could ease traffic by 10 per cent to 15 per cent on the CTE and major roads.
That is good news for project manager Patrick Liow, 54, who lives in Yishun and drives his daughter to Nanyang Technological University in Jalan Bahar at 8am, before going to his office in Ayer Rajah.
'It's always jammed. Ang Mo Kio, jam. Marymount Road, jam. Lornie Road, jam. Farrer Road, jam,' he said.
'This expressway is long overdue.'
Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research at property consultancy SLP International, estimates the increased accessibility to the city and elsewhere to give a slight lift of 2 per cent to 3 per cent to the values of properties northwards from Toa Payoh.
But homes 10m to 20m from the viaduct, from the first to 11th levels, could see a 5 per cent drop in value. 'It's the noise, dust and unsightly view of vehicles zooming past,' he said.
Some home owners at Marymount Terrace who received acquisition notices yesterday were upset, with at least one bursting into tears at the thought of parting with her long-time neighbours. They have been given two years to move.
Others mulled over their options. Said businessman Wilson Loy, 41, who has lived there for 15 years: 'We don't know where we are going to go but we just hope the compensation is reasonable.'
Members of the public can call the Singapore Land Authority on 6323-9829 on land acquisition issues and the LTA on 1800-CALL-LTA (1800-2255-582) for matters related to the expressway.
Additional reporting by Kimberly Spykerman, Chong Ziliang, Lester Kok and Royston Sim
Properties affected
Straits Times 20 Jan 11;
The following will be acquired by the Government:
# Marymount Terrace
This road running parallel to Marymount Road has a row of 26 terrace houses built about 16 years ago. They are near the Circle Line's Marymount MRT station,which is about a five-minute walk away.
# Marymount Convent
Land housing the Good Shepherd Convent, home of the Good Shepherd nuns. However, Marymount Convent School next door will not be affected.
# Condominiums
The Seletaris in Sembawang, as well as the Nuovo, Bullion Park and Castle Green in Yio Chu Kang, will have part of their fences, boundary walls and grass verge acquired.
# Industrial estates
These are owned by JTC and HDB in places like Sin Ming and Woodlands, where companies such as CityCab and 3M Singapore lease space for their operations.
Longest viaduct most challenging to build
Royston Sim & Lester Kok Straits Times 20 Jan 11;
THE longest viaduct in Singapore is also expected to be one of the toughest to build.
A Land Transport Authority spokesman said the main engineering challenge is that the North-South Expressway will pass through densely populated and built-up areas, and be built 'in close proximity' to buildings and underground infrastructure.
Engineering experts said a fine balance must be struck between construction progress and minimising disruptions to daily life in residential areas.
Transport consultant Gopinath Menon noted that constructing tunnels using a cut-and-cover method would involve a lot of road diversions.
He added that the different types of roads to be built also contribute to the project's complexity.
'First of all, it's a combination of everything - a viaduct, surface road, half-depressed road and a tunnel,' he said.
'Having to go both above and underground shows how difficult it is to build roads in Singapore now.'
In planning and designing the North-South Expressway, the LTA said its main consideration was choosing the best possible route to minimise land acquisition.
Building a viaduct did not necessarily mean more land would be acquired, said a spokesman.
The 8.8km viaduct portion will run along stretches where there is sufficient space within the road reserve for columns to be put up without having to acquire too much land.
Having a tunnel for other sections would also minimise land acquisition.
Motorists generally expected that the new expressway would ease some of the congestion on the Central Expressway (CTE).
Said Yishun resident Melvin Kok, 52, was also pleased that it would give him an alternative to using the CTE.
The director of a perfume distributor company, he added that he now uses Thomson Road or the CTE but both are equally congested during peak hours.
'It can take me as long as an hour to drive from Yishun to the city,' he said.
Other motorists like Mr Jorge Neo, 28, an IT executive, felt it would be good for residents in Sembawang and Yishun to have an expressway nearer their homes.
However, he pointed out that it would be 'useless' unless the expressway could bypass the traffic jams usually formed at the junction between CTE and the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).
Woodlands resident Lai Mun Loon, 26, a graduate student, was more concerned about the price he would have to pay to use the new route, as he expects Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to be in effect.
In response, the LTA said: 'As with all other roads, ERP will be considered only if the traffic conditions warrant it.'
SINGAPORE'S LONGEST VIADUCTS
# North-South Expressway viaduct
8.8km (estimated completion: 2020)
# West Coast Highway viaduct
5km (operational since 2006)
# Bartley-Tampines viaduct
4.5km (operational since last year)
# Tuas West Extension viaduct
4km (estimated completion: 2016)
# Upper Serangoon viaduct
1.5km (operational since 2002)
North-South Expressway alignment approved
Dylan Loh Channel NewsAsia 19 Jan 11;
SINGAPORE: The government will acquire close to 40 lots and more than 30 part lots of land to facilitate the construction of a stretch of the North South Expressway (NSE) between Admiralty Road West and Toa Payoh Rise.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said this follows government approval for the alignment of that stretch of the new expressway.
Planning, engineering and alignment studies for the southern segment of the NSE are still ongoing.
The LTA said the lots to be acquired, which include Marymount Terrace and Marymount Convent, will be comprehensively redeveloped.
The Orange Valley Nursing Home and Good Shepherd Chapel, as well as the Missionaries of Charity Gift of Love Home and Rose Villa would have to go, as a result.
Marymount Convent School and Marymount Kindergarten said they would remain at its current premises.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said the sites at Marymount Terrace and Marymount Convent would be considered for residential development after the completion of the new expressway.
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) gazetted the lands affected by the acquisition on Wednesday.
Landowners who are directly affected will receive the acquisition notices on Wednesday and they will be given ample time to move out.
Some residents said they had been told to get their property evaluated before entering into talks with the government to work out compensation packages.
They added they had two years to move to a new place.
The new expressway will run parallel to the Central Expressway (CTE) to serve the north-south corridor.
The CTE is currently the only expressway serving the north-south corridor and it experiences heavy traffic generated by motorists from the northern and central part of Singapore during peak hours.
One driver said: "It will actually minimise congestion on certain expressways, due to the fact that there is another new route for (drivers) to use".
Another said: "This highway will alleviate all the population leaving from Punggol and Yishun, and Woodlands, so it really helps a lot"
A third person said: "It would not help. The more highway freeway you build, the more cars you will entitle people".
LTA said even with the completion of the CTE widening project by the end of this year, traffic demand along this corridor is expected to continue to grow.
The authority said the NSE will not only alleviate the current load experienced on the CTE, but also help ease traffic on major arterial roads, such as Thomson Road and Marymount Road.
NSE will consist of a combination of viaduct and road tunnels to provide a new high speed road link from residential estates such as Woodlands, Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Toa Payoh to the city centre.
It will also connect to existing expressways, such as the Seletar Expressway and major arterial roads, such as Marymount Road.
Work on the new expressway is expected to start in 2013 and completed by 2020.
-CNA/ac/wk