CONSTRUCTION work on the Circle Line MRT is on schedule, but it will cost more than the original $6.7 billion budgeted.
Inflation, more expensive concrete and more stringent design and engineering standards following the 2004 collapse at the Nicoll Highway station have pushed costs up.
Giving a progress report yesterday, Land Transport Authority deputy chief executive Lim Bok Ngam said part of the 33.5-km line should be ready by 2010, with the rest of it completed by '2011 or 2012'.
Related Video Link - http://tinyurl.com/344oxrCircle Line completion may take till 2012
Overall works for the Circle Line is on track, and LTA officials say it could take up to 2012 for the line to be ready.
The 2004 Nicoll Highway Collapse, and the recent Indonesian sand ban and increased levies on granite, had slowed down some aspect of the construction of the 33km Circle Line.
And this has also added some costs to the $6.8 billion project.
Melissa Kok takes a trip down to the Botanic Gardens and Farrer Road stations to check out the work in progress.
The new timeline takes into account delays after the 2004 collapse. Before the accident, which killed four workers, the first phase of the line was to have been completed by 2006, and the second phase by 2010.
Yesterday, Mr Lim said: 'In all mega projects, there will be some areas of works that are ahead of schedule and some slightly behind. For the Circle Line, we are satisfied that the overall progress is on track for completion from 2010.'
About 65 per cent of the line has been completed.
The structures of 14 of the 29 stations are done, and by next year, LTA expects all tunnelling work to be finished.
The Circle Line, which is expected to carry 400,000 to 500,000 commuters daily around the city centre, may yet open in stages.
The LTA said that a stretch measuring about 8km - with seven stations between MacPherson and Marymount - was in advanced stages of completion.
In fact, architectural, electrical and mechanical works are being carried out now, and are expected to be completed by mid-2008.
The Straits Times understands that as the train depot is along the stretch, it is feasible to open it as early as the first half of 2010.
But Mr Lim would not commit to this.
'It's not just the construction. Testing and commissioning of the system can be quite complicated,' he said.
Mr Lim said a new contractor will soon be picked to finish the MacPherson and Tai Seng stations - where construction stalled last year when Sweden's NCC stopped work because of the sharp rise in concrete prices.
Mr Lim said another episode such as this was unlikely, saying 'the NCC case was an exceptional case'.
Industry players said NCC, a relative newcomer to LTA work, may be the first casualty of cost overruns which have hit Circle Line projects since the 2004 collapse.
The Nicoll Highway station has been re-designed. It is now one-third smaller, but costs 10 per cent more to build.
Higher engineering standards - which have pushed up costs - were evident at other stations along the line.
For instance, the Farrer Road Station under construction now has retaining walls that are 1.2m thick - 50 per cent thicker than the collapsed walls of the Nicoll Highway station.
The higher standards affect the western half of the Circle Line more, as construction there started well after 2004.
Mr Lim said the eventual cost 'has not been worked out', but the higher cost of sand and granite would only add 'a single-digit' percentage increase to the project.
He said the LTA will compensate the contractors 75 per cent of the rise in sand and aggregate cost.
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