Contract awards - P105 & CR202

 

Render of Punggol Cross Island Line platform.
Source: LTA

A render of one of the facility buildings en route.
Source: LTA

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the award of 2 contracts for the Cross Island Line (CRL) today - contracts P105 & CR202. Contract P105 is for the construction of Punggol interchange station along the Cross Island Line - Punggol Extension (CPE) route. This contract was awarded to local company Woh Hup that had previously constructed Woodlands South station on the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) and is now working on Tanjong Katong & Bayshore stations (do head on down to the ERL Construction Blog to see upcoming updates on these stations).

Location map of the Punggol CPE station.
Source: LTA

Provisions for a connecting line were made at Punggol station during the construction of the North East Line (NEL) in the early 2000's. An empty box measuring 40 metres by 40 metres was built beneath the level of the existing NEL platforms to allow for a future line to cross underneath. This forward-thinking will come in useful as the contractor will not have to tunnel directly below an existing, operational MRT line reducing the amount of disruption necessary to construction the station.

Description of the provisions made at Punggol station during the
construction of NEL.
Source: Getting There - the story of the North East Line
(available at National Library)

That is not to say that there will be no disruptions. As the exact layout of the station could not be confirmed when the original NEL station was constructed, the majority of the new station will need to be built from scratch. Residents in the area should expect road diversions, some degree of noise & dust and vibrations among the inconveniences to endure as works begin. With the award of this contract, 2 of the 3 civil contracts for the CPE have been successfully won. We are now left with contract P102 for the construction of Elias station and tunnels connecting to Pasir Ris to be awarded.

15 July 2020 - Connection to the eastbound platform is likely to be
added on here, at the northern end of the NEL platforms.

15 July 2022 - Connection to the westbound platform is likely to be added on here, at the
southern end of the NEL platforms, flanking the existing escalator.

Contract CR202 on the other hand, is for the construction of a large diameter bored tunnel from Sin Ming to Fairways Drive and was awarded to a joint venture of Obayashi & Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. The tunnels will sit approximately 60 to 70 metres underground and cross under the Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR). This caused a stir when the line was first announced with advocacy groups airing concerns about the potential impact arising from the construction & operation of an MRT line through the reserve.

An environmental impact assessment study was carried out which lead to further refinement
of the route alignment, work site locations & sizes.
Source: LTA

The LTA subsequently explained that no surface-level construction works will take place within the reserve. Worksites for the contract will be located at the periphery instead. With the use of a large diameter tunnel boring machine, capable of constructing a single tube tunnel that is able to house 2 trackways, the machine only needs to be run through the reserve once as opposed to the typical set up of twin bored tunnels. An advantage of this method would be that the contractor would only need to monitor the impact of a single machine moving through the area once, as opposed to doing the work twice for 2 machines.

Additionally, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study was conducted to examine the impact of both construction & operations of the rail line through the CCNR. The findings of the EIA lead to a further refinement of the tunnel alignments as well as the review of the locations & size of the worksites at the CCNR periphery. In particular, 2 of the work sites were amended significantly after the EIA was conducted to accommodate the needs of flora & fauna in the intended locations of the worksites. One such example sited in the EIA report was the discovery of an area used by the Raffles Banded Langurs which resulted in the LTA scaling back the size of the worksite and changing the type of works being carried out at the site. It will no longer serve as a launch shaft but instead be used solely for a future facility building to allow for ventilation and emergency access/egress when necessary.

With the award of contract CR202, the first contract for the CRL2 has been won. There remain a further 8 civil contracts to be tendered, with 2 of these already floated - CR205 for the construction of King Albert Park station & CR208 for the construction of Clementi station. We look forward to further contracts being awarded & wish the contractors a safe & successful project implementation.

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