Too few sites to cope with spike in construction projects, they say
Rachel Chang Straits Times 16 Jun 12;
The earth from all four points is then loaded onto barges and moved to various offshore dumping sites, like one near St John's Island.
WITH the surge in construction projects around the island, builders have literally come up against a wall of excavated earth.
Lorries now line up for as long as five hours to discharge their loads of earth when just six months ago, there was no wait.
It is so upsetting that the Singapore Contractors' Association (Scal) has submitted a paper on the situation, with solutions, to the Ministry of National Development.
The Straits Times understands that the ministry has promised Scal, which represents some 2,000 construction companies, to ease the bottleneck at the Changi offloading point in Tanah Merah Coast Road.
Construction company bosses said the problem stems from the spike in the number of developments in the past year.
Last year, the HDB rolled out 25,000 new flats, with another 25,000 promised by the end of this year. The Government has also sold a large number of sites to private developers to build new homes: There are 86,000 units in the pipeline.
At the same time, major transport routes, such as the Downtown MRT line and the Marina Coastal Expressway, are under construction.
Also, work on the Thomson MRT line and the North-South highway is set to start soon.
The construction boom has given rise to several issues for builders, of which the dumping of earth is among the most urgent, they said.
Scal president Ho Nyok Yong said one of the solutions members have proposed is to have more offloading points around the island.
Currently, most lorries go to the one in Changi, which is managed by the Housing Board, and takes in earth from all construction projects.
There are three others. Two, in Marina Coastal Drive and Fort Road, are run by the Land Transport Authority, and open only to lorries from transport-related developments, owing to the extensive excavation from projects like the new MRT lines.
The third, at Tuas, accepts only a certain high-quality grade of earth that can be used immediately for land reclamation.
It is costly and difficult for sites to identify and sort the types of earth beforehand, so few lorries go to Tuas, said construction bosses.
The earth from all four points is then loaded onto barges and moved to various offshore dumping sites, like one near St John's Island.
Builders would like to see new points in the west and the north.
'The journey for the lorry from a site in Jurong to Changi is already one hour. Then they have to wait in line for many hours,' said Chip Eng Seng managing director of construction Yeo Siang Thong. 'This is a serious problem, and there must be a coordinated government effort to solve it.'
At its construction sites, which include three HDB Build-to-Order projects, foremen are so loath to sending lorries to the offloading points that they move earth around to projects where blocks have not been built yet, 'playing musical chairs', until there is no space left, he said.
Until there are new offloading points, the builders hope more space can be found temporarily near the Changi site to cope with the current loads.
'The Government wants us to improve our productivity. With the lorry drivers all sitting there queuing, their productivity is very low,' noted Lian Beng Group chairman and managing director Ong Pang Aik.
