CR117 - Slowly trucking along

 

18 November 2022 - A view of Bright Hill station Exit 1 with the contract CR117 site office in the
background.

11 September 2022 - Bright Hill station Exit 1 with the contract CR117 site office under
construction in the background.

Bright Hill station was the location for the Cross Island Line (CRL) phase 1 alignment announcement & unveiling in January 2019. It was also the final civil contract awarded for CRL1 with contract CR117 going to the very same contractor that built the existing Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) station - Penta-Ocean Construction Company Ltd. Having been awarded earlier in 2022, works are slowly gearing up with site preparation underway. The site offices have been completed and hoarding up of the site is being carried out.

18 November 2022 - Exit 1 and the former Bishan Park Secondary School site.

18 November 2022 - A view westwards to the end of the CRL phase 1.

18 November 2022 - Soil investigation work ongoing within the former Bishan Park Secondary
School grounds. The school buildings will likely be demolished to allow cut & cover tunnels to be
built underneath and serve to connect the line with phase 2.

18 November 2022

Elsewhere along the site, advanced works are being carried out to ensure that utility lines and services are safely diverted away to prevent any disruptions once construction work begins proper. This contract involves a significant amount of cut & cover work for both station and tunnels as well as the construction of a short stretch of bored tunnels towards Teck Ghee station. The station itself will be shallow with the CRL platforms being located at the same level as the TEL concourse.

18 November 2022 - The site where advanced works are ongoing.

11 September 2022 - The same site for advanced works.

18 November 2022 - A view eastwards along Sin Ming Avenue.

11 September 2022 - The same view eastwards along Sin Ming Avenue.

18 November 2022 - A view of the contract site office.

18 November 2022 - Near the Exit 1 bus stop.

18 November 2022 - Workers setting up construction hoarding at the
work site.

18 November 2022 - A view of the contract CR117 site from HDB blocks at Teck Ghee.

With site preparation underway through the setting up of hoarding and soil testing activities being carried out, works should start to move into full swing shortly. As with other sites, more equipment can be expected to move onsite progressively. Till then, more of the site will need to be hoarded up and trees & vegetation felled to make way for site clearing. At that stage, the necessary equipment can be moved onto site to facilitate launch shaft and earth retaining & stabilizing structure construction works.

For this contract, a slurry tunnel boring machine will be used to construct the tunnels underneath Eunoia Junior College up to Teck Ghee station. The launch shaft will be located at the eastern end of the site where the cut & cover crossover tunnels will be located. Also part of the contract will be the construction of the paid transfer linkway that exists as a stub at the TEL station. When the line's alignment was announced & unveiled in 2019, we were fortunate to be invited by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to attend the launch ceremony. Part of the ceremony also involved a tour of the then under construction TEL Bright Hill station, where members of the media and tour entourage were shown the provisions for the future connecting linkway at the TEL concourse.

18 November 2022 - The TEL station layout with provisions for a future linkway connecting to the
CRL station visible near Exit 2.

25 January 2019 - A view of the future connecting paid linkway to
the CRL station at the TEL concourse as seen during a station tour
during the CRL1 alignment announcement & unveiling.

25 January 2019 - A view inside the provisions for the paid linkway to
the CRL station at the TEL concourse level.

2021 - The same area with the station fitted out. The signage panels are ready for the CRL to come
in and get linked up.

We understand that the linkway will lead up directly to the westbound CRL platform without a further need to change levels. From renders released by the LTA, the faregates for the CRL are also expected to be located at the same level with transfers to the eastbound side becoming necessary. However it is envisioned that in the early years before CRL2 comes online, the westbound platform is likely to be used for both inbound and outbound trains, negating the need to switch platforms until the second phase of the line is commissioned - a similar arrangement to that employed at Chinatown previously when the first phase of the Downtown Line was in operation with Platform C being the primary platform in use.

Till then, we anticipate construction work ramping up at the contract site in time to come, with works going full steam ahead in 2023. Do stay tuned as we continue to update this space with progress updates when they're available.

This post is also available on Instagram.