Channel NewsAsia - Friday, July 27
ECP to be realigned for new Marina Coast Expressway
SINGAPORE: Part of the East Coast Parkway will soon be realigned to make way for a new expressway, called the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), to ease congestion in the downtown Marina area.
The move, which was announced by Transport Minister Raymond Lim at the Intelligent Transport Systems Centre, will also free up land for more commercial developments there.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the new expressway will be built by 2013 at a cost of S$2.5 billion.
Mr Lim said: "The government has given the go-ahead to build another expressway aka the Marina Coastal Expressway or MCE for short. When it is completed in about 6 years' time, it will provide an additional high-speed link to the Marina Bay area to support the development of this new downtown."
The new 5-kilometre MCE will link the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) in the east to the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) in the west, so commuters who are not headed downtown can bypass the Marina Bay area.
To make way for the new expressway, the East Coast Parkway (ECP) at Marina South will be realigned and converted to a major road to serve the Marina Bay area.
Paul Fok, LTA's Group Director for Engineering, said: "Currently the East Coast Parkway runs through the new downtown at Marina Bay, with the expressway going through the downtown. What it means is that the city cannot extend beyond the expressway into the Marina Bay because from an expressway, you can't access the developments.
"With the construction of the MCE, which will be nearer towards the sea, we will be able to realign the East Coast Parkway and ensure that people can access the development from East Coast Parkway. For example, people from the Marina Sands integrated resort will be able to join the realigned East Coast Parkway because there will be traffic light junctions."
To facilitate the building of the MCE, 13.3 ha of land reclamation will be carried out at Marina East and Marina Wharf.
The MCE will be constructed mainly underground, so that land above it can be used for other purposes.
The route will comprise a 3.5-kilometre-long underground tunnel and a 1.5-kilometre road structure above ground.
The construction of the new expressway will be no easy task because part of MCE will run underneath the seabed, just 150 metres away from the Marina Barrage, which needs to be opened from time to time to allow water to flow out in the event of heavy rain.
Engineers will, therefore, have to take into consideration the large amount of water that will be released and figure out how to build the MCE safely.
The opening of phase 1 of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway on 26 October was also announced on Friday.
This first phase will extend from the ECP at Fort Road to the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).
The LTA said commuters can cut travelling time by 5 to 8 minutes using this new underground expressway.
Yam Ah Mee, LTA's Chief Executive, said: "The way the KPE is built by linking the northeast corridor to the city & residents in the northeast corridor will have an alternative travelling route to the city. Those who now travel along the Tampines Expressway and join the CTE will also have an option to use the KPE.
"On the other hand, residents on the western and north-western part of Singapore will also have lesser traffic on the CTE and so we expect improvement in traffic all round."
Phase 1 of the KPE will have three Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries, but only one will be charging motorists.
The LTA said the other gantries are placed there for monitoring purposes and it will assess the traffic flow to determine if more payment should be levied after a month.
The entire KPE, stretching from the ECP to the Tampines Expressway (TPE), will open later next year.
When that happens, residents in Sengkang, Punggol and Hougang will find their travel time to the city cut by 25 percent.
The 12-kilometre-long KPE, which cost S$1.7 billion to build, is the longest underground expressway in Southeast Asia.
Since much of it is underground, the consequences of a major accident are far more serious compared to an open expressway.
Hence, the LTA is embarking on a safety education programme on the use of the tunnel. - CNA/so